


The past and the present

by awesomeraiders, Midnight1890



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, Both of the main characters have been raped in the past so that is talked about, Cringe. Lots of cringe, Drug references/jokes not actual drug use they're just weird, Explicit sexual content maybe?, Graphic Depictions of Illness, I promise I will tell you when it gets less platonic and more sexual, Other, Past Violence, Platonic Bed-sharing, Romantic bed-sharing. Otherwise known as both of them trying to get laid and both failing miserably, They all swear. A lot., Undertale References, Undertale Spoilers, Violence, You Have Been Warned
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-18
Updated: 2016-09-26
Packaged: 2018-06-02 23:10:23
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 29
Words: 74,316
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6586627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/awesomeraiders/pseuds/awesomeraiders, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Midnight1890/pseuds/Midnight1890
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes the past just won't stay there.</p><p>Warning: Undertale spoilers follow if you haven't finished the game, go do that first, this isn't going anywhere. Or don't. Just don't complain to me.</p><p>The main character is not Frisk even though Frisk is present</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prolouge

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I finally got an idea for the prologue so here we are.

The wind howled and screamed as it dove into the hissing, bubbling lava pool. The pool carried the floating black mass edged with a small patch of white. He finally remembered something. What did he remember? What was it that lurked so close, so damn close, but was held just out of his reach?

_There._

He caught it he remembered… He remembered his wife.... Head of the royal guard… The last thing he cared about… He also remembered she was gone. Killed by him… He then remembered the two sons he had with her… Their eldest becoming everything she was supposed to be…

Two black holes opened on the white patch and the black mass moved to his command. Hatred and rage making the tar boil. He bumped into a wall and he turned over, reaching part of the blackness up. The tar solidified into an arm with a hand once it left the lazily moving, burning magma. He gripped an indention on this huge pit.

_Click._

His boney fingers held. He heaved another arm up out of the pit.

_Click._

He lugged more of the tar up. It didn’t solidify nearly as well as the rest of him had… Damn. All his power had been in his legs. Oh well… This will work for the time being. His shins and booted feet did solidify however. Good he’d take all the support he could get. He started to climb the brick patterned wall.

_Click._

He felt other souls collecting themselves. Rage, Fear, Depression, Joy, Disgust, Anticipation, Surprise, Vigilance, Grief. The last memories of the people after whom the souls were named. All except grief however… That one had been… Created with his wife’s death.

_Click._

He started to remember things… His successor had been his former assistant, Alpyhs assuming those above didn’t lie. He had heard the whispers of the monsters above him. Talk about her creations. Amalgamates was what they had called them. There were six in total supposedly. She had kept all six hidden for a long time, but the last one in particular she kept hidden away. It wasn’t stable. If he could just get that one he could become strong enough to retain himself a little better, and would be able recover more memories; find out where that boy had run off to.

_Click._

The child would’ve been smart enough to flee after he and Vigilance cornered the melted man on a platform and after the tar puddle killed Vigilance, the boy had personally thrown his own father into the lava. He had said he was, “Done being his plaything,” and, “Didn’t want to be scared of what night would bring.” HA. He couldn’t understand. He had power beyond belief and he couldn’t even use half of that power. Had he stayed for just a little longer, the scientist would have forced him to learn his powers to their full capabilities. Maybe it wasn’t the easiest way to do it but when the smaller monster bled it caused the most insane of joys to flood him.

_Click._

How long had he been in this hell hole?

_Click._

A quick estimate by structure and population change said 9 years.

_Click._

How many people he had once considered friends were still around?

_Click._

Surely the royal family was still around?

_Cl--Shunk!_

Pain shot through what few nerves he had managed to recover. He slipped down several bricks only stopping himself from hitting the lava again by bending over backwards, his claws catching the top of the last brick which was half submerged in lava. He flipped himself upright again over his liquified body and started climbing again.

_Click._

His youngest was going to be his first target.

_Click._

He knew his eldest had only allowed 15 years of experimentation because the one who was climbing his own construct had always told the child that if he didn’t comply the experiments would go to the younger of them.

_Click._

The eldest had never allowed it.

_Click._

Torturing the younger brother would hurt the older more than the child could possibly imagine.

_Click._

No.

_Click._

He could imagine it.

_Click._

He felt it in his blood right now.

_Click._

The eldest needs to feel the same pain.

_Click._

He probably had started seeking a female to settle with.

_Click._

Very well. If the son had a candidate. He would kill her too.

_Click._

No.

_Click_

He would try for the candidate’s closest friends and let the candidate suffer and by extension the boy suffer.

_Click_

Or maybe he could get them to kill each other.

_Click_

No.

_Click._

The child took his relationships with people very seriously. He would give himself to keep the girl safe. He probably would choose someone wounded, like himself, and try to help heal them both.

_Click._

If he could find and exploit this weakness he could crumble the boy’s partner, making him unable to fight his attacker.

_Click_

The boy was weak.

_Click_

He loved too much.

**But so did you.**

_Click_

Go to hell! I killed you 24 years ago! You're dead!

_Click_

**Killed? More like stole my body and started torturing my son with it.**

_Click_

Die!

He screamed at the last bit of humanity he had left.

_Click._

_Click.._

_Click…_

_Click….?_

**Try again bastard.**

_Click…._

_Click…_

_Click.._

_Click._

**You can't can you?**

_Click._

You have no power over me!

_Click._

**Remember the deaths you cause are your fault.**

_Click._

Shut the fuck up!

_Click_

**As you wish “master”**

_Click_

The man heaved himself over the railing and onto a path. He laid in the middle of it recovering what little strength he had before pushing himself up so he was standing. He stood in front of a pearly white building with the word “lab” written across the top in ginormous red letters. He sloshed in past an automatic door into a dark room.

It was a lot different then he remembered it. With posters of something called “Mew Mew: Kissy Cutie” strewn across the walls end to end, and the desk was much more cluttered than he had ever allowed it.

It did however scream the successors name at him however. She had never been the most… collected of people.

He ignored this and went straight to another sliding door which led into a bathroom. He leaned against the door and clicked a hidden button under the mirror and the back wall moved out of sight opening into an elevator.

He sizzled into it hitting the “TL” button as he passed. It lowered him down and opened up into a dark green shower tiled room.

The sliding door revealed a humanoid form which thought he was Alphys, coming to feed it. The creature looked like it had gotten stuck in a bath drain but it also looked gentle, like it would tuck in a lost sleeping child if it came across one.

**I’m sorry friend.**

No I’m not. I feel no remorse. He countered grinning evilly at the amalgamate. Who had realized the man was not Alphys. He extended his liquified body around the room blocking the exits as the creature tried to flee and and get to safety. He couldn’t stop a maniacal laugh as it realized it was trapped.

“You’re mine now.” He screeched in a gravely voice and the amalgamate looked terrified searching furiously for somewhere, anywhere, to run. He closed in on it and watched it struggle for air until finally after a long time it stopped fighting him and went limp. He laughed again and swallowed the lifeless creature whole. His form solidified a bit more and he felt the magic return to his blood.

I can kill you now.

**Not without killing yourself.**

Damn.

**You’re stuck with me now.**

Oh well. I have bigger things to worry about.

**Yes. Yes you do.**

Now the real work begins.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I haven't been on in a while sorry for anyone who keeps up. I have a bunch of stuff ready I'm just sorting through some stuff so here we go with this just so I have something before I upload 13 chapters at the same time. Yay for having an antagonist!


	2. I may be a little unorganized and not ready at all for real life

Finally! The day when I turned 23 and could move out! I know, legally I'm allowed to move out when I'm 18 but that had been the year the monsters had come from above ground and my adopted mother knew that my curious nature about the monsters would lead me straight to the middle of the action where the old scars between the two races were still healing and the sudden appearance of a human, or sudden disappearance of one, might set off a war between the two species again and potentially get me killed in the process. Even though I am far from human.  


My name is Riley, and I was born a monster that had lived under the feet of the humans with their own society for generations. Thanks to a war that the humans won and during which the monsters were banished to the underground. The year I turned 18 was when they came back to the surface. I had always had the nagging sense of exploration and this gave me a perfect opportunity to answer the questions my adoptive parents never had answers for. All that they knew was that I wasn’t human, which if my tail and shape shifting abilities didn’t give that away, I don’t know what would have. And they didn’t just pick me up and say, “Oh you're our kid now.” They went through whatever legal process was necessary for that. So a chance to meet another of my kind and maybe getting some logical reason as to how I got on the surface was irresistible to me. What had made my biological parents forfeit me? Do I have any siblings and what separated us if I do?  


Of course me not being the same as everyone else made me subject to being avoided or even bullied during school. It wasn’t until high school ( I know right?! High school of all places) that I got a group of friends and had people to be ‘human’ with. Normal society is hard enough with out the added difficulty caused by having a fluffy cat-fox tail I couldn’t conceal mixed in. I could control my powers, sure. Just the physical differences are hard to conceal. I also have emerald green eyes that will point me out in any crowd. So much for the being a natural born introvert thing. No one really liked the little black-haired kid who hid in the dark corner and wore all black and hoodies all the time. Hiding served more than just the introvert in me, it was a super ineffective attempt to hide my being out there as far as my origins.  


I also have various scars on my arms neck and belly, and no they were never self inflicted. When I was much younger I had a number of medical issues and I guess it couldn't just be a distant memory.  
Besides the point. Today was the day I could move out after my adopted mother offered to pay for my college tuition if I stayed until I was 23. Why 23 I’m not sure. I agreed and got my bachelors, and started making enough to pay for an apartment and started doing my homework as to where I could move. I eventually decided on a smaller place near the monster areas of the city. To her credit, Mom wasn't wrong about me going straight to the monsters. I also was able to afford a semi-decent car. By semi-decent, I mean a car that isn't a scrap pile of parts not a high-end racing car by any means, but it works so I didn't have to walk around in a brand new place, which was nice. Now I didn't have to get lost in public. I could just get lost and ask the google lady to help me out rather than a stranger on the street. I also managed to land a job at the local theatre as the lights director (I found this fitting seeing as how I had spent high school with the theatre kids who got me into the entire lights business). It was lights and it paid pretty well and fresh out of college me will take both of those things, The area also seemed pretty nice with several parks and everything you could ever need within walking distance of the apartment building. So despite the paranoia (or maybe it was just anxiety acting up again who knows?) It was going to work out and it was going to be an adventure! Action! Comedy! Romance! Wow I sound like Mettaton, the robot on TV. Maybe I’d get to meet it to. Probably not if we’re being honest, but I would finally get to fit in for a change. 

Thinking all this as I was doing last minute packing (my seven blankets for the most part, couldn’t live without those!) when my mom broke my train of thought with a call for breakfast I replied with a, “One second!” and scanned my room again to make sure I wasn’t leaving anything. I saw my hoodie and threw it on grateful I hadn’t forgot that of all things. I double checked again just to make sure, and grabbed my phone and headphones and pocketed them, and decided that I had everything I needed and I ran downstairs zipping up my sweater as I went. I ran past the table grabbing the food on it and inhaling it as I went speeding to the garage and loading my stuff into the back of my car. I had already moved my essential furniture (my bed, nightstands, things like that) a couple weeks ago so I didn’t have to worry about dealing with people before I absolutely had to. I set my laptop in the shotgun seat of the car just so I would have it if I needed it for some reason. I turned on the car and it roared to life and I connected my phones’ Bluetooth to the car and turned on my tunes I left my phone plugged into the car and made another round around the house. Said goodbye to my mom and told her to tell my dad I said bye when he got up and got ready to go to work. Then went back to the garage hit the button to open it and got in it and backed out of the garage and hit the remote control and started the two hour drive to where new possibilities and adventures awaited my arrival… I hope.


	3. Why two introverts being in the same room if they've never met before never works. Ever

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Riley moves to the city and meets new friends. Here we go.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Any references I make go to their rightful owners I own nothing just throwing that out there now. Enjoy!

Turns out a two hour drive across town when you're anticipating adventure turns into a two year drive. Nothing interesting happened on the drive and my brain kept doing the, are we there yet? No. Are we there yet? NO! Thing so I attempted to distract my brain with thoughts of the people I was going to meet. Pro tip: calming your brain with more thoughts of what’s exciting it, not the most effective way to do things. So after about 15 minutes I decided that focusing on the road and jamming out to my tunes was the best use of my energy at the moment. I got some strange looks at the red lights but I was so beyond caring.

Upon arrival I drove into my parking space and climbed into the elevator making a mental note to talk to the neighbor who owned the open roofed race car. I flipped on my phone reading the text I had sent myself the night before with the floor and apartment numbers. I clicked the 7 button and patiently waited (By that, I mean was almost jumping in impatience) as the doors closed and the elevator took me up at what felt a snail’s pace. _Room 735 got it_. I thought to myself. Checking my phone for the number again the second I stepped off the elevator. (Sometimes anxiety does good things. Because I definitely couldn’t remember my apartment number at all).

I approached the door and it was a giant wooden door that was dark, not old, just dark. The knocker above my head and the door’s sheer size hinted at the fact that the door was built for a much larger creature. _Wait so there are different species of monsters? Cool._ I heaved open the hefty door and into a room with similarly sized counters and kitchen appliances. No this wasn’t the first time I saw the apartment but it was first time I was in it on my own and when I wasn’t moving furniture or otherwise setting up. Also no I didn’t assume there would be different species of monsters. Is that a little ignorant of me? Yes. Yes it is. Did I still do it because of my lack of experience? Yes. Yes I did. I made a note to not be startled by whatever I might find today.  


I walked into my apartment shutting the door behind me and saw my place. The kitchen was the first room for the most part, aside from an entryway with a bathroom and a metal rack. The kitchen had a large granite counter, an island with a sink and dishwasher attached to it, and behind the island there was a bunch of cupboards and a stove oven combination. The living room had a couch, a loveseat, and just a single recliner type chair. With my giant tv on the back wall that was hooked up to my Xbox 360 and Xbox One. A random array of Xbox games lay strewn across the coffee table. I’ll get to those in a bit. I thought to myself resisting the temptation to just play my games all day. I crept into the bedroom. There was another smaller tv in there with another couple Xboxes . Yes I have 2 xbox 360’s and Xbox one’s. No I’m not a super rich person. Far from it. I had just been gifted with them at various points in time. The bed took up a good chunk of the room and on the rightmost wall was the doorway to the master bathroom which had a shower in it unlike the other one. The apartment wasn’t at all large but it would work if I had friends over or something and it certainly was more than enough space for me.

I nodded in approval and decided that I needed food in the house and that I should probably grab lunch before my stomach alerted the entire building to my existence. I opened the giant door again not needing to grab anything because I hadn’t set anything down just yet. I stumbled out into the hallway as the door closed behind on me with inertia making me lose my balance as it stopped suddenly. The only one who was there to notice this was a skeleton looking guy. At least I think it was a skeleton. He didn’t have eyes so much as violet irises with black dots in the middle surrounded by dark pits where the rest of his eyes should be. He also had this giant grin which looked like he had 18 tons of ice cream before getting up this morning. But despite not having normal things used for facial expressions (eye brows etc.). He looked mildly concerned and amused. _How in the world?_ He peace signed me like he could read my mind or something. I smiled back, which he looked surprised by, his cheekbones turning a very light shade of blue and he slipped into his apartment.

I noticed that despite his size compared to the door he had no trouble with it. _Well yeah he’s probably been here longer than you have dummy,_ I scolded myself shaking off the social anxiety attack that was creeping up on me for making myself look like a complete idiot in front of the first person (Monster I guess is a better term) I had met here. _At least he was an introvert_. I told myself fighting back against the internal screaming.  
I walked to the elevator. _It’s weird how he acted like he knew what you were thinking. Maybe each species of monster has a different ability and his is psychokinesis (If you don’t know what that is, it’s basically the ability to control something or someone with just your mind.) That seems like it could be dangerous. Well you have to trust he can control his powers. But he’s new and he’s probably a.. No brain just because he’s new doesn't mean he’s going to murder everyone. I thought we talked about this. Yeah but.. NO BUTS._ Yup I’m a hot mess I know. But my first introduction to people had been on hospital beds with needles and IVs all over the place and me being in constant pain so my brain is just trying to prevent that from happening again.

That and PTSD sucks to have to put up with. (Long story short. My liver failed when I was six months old and so doctors had to try and fix it but 6 month old me didn’t know that they were trying to help so here we are.) Anyways at this point the elevator door opened to the parking garage and I spent a moment trying to figure out whether or not I had clicked a button off impulse and ended up in a different country or if half paying attention me had actually clicked the right floor. I saw my car and definitely did a little happy dance again glancing around to make sure no one had seen that. I thought I saw the skeleton but blinked and realized it was just a white SUV. _Stop being paranoid he went into his apartment unless he can teleport or something there is absolutely no way he could be down here._

I got in my car and revved the engines to life. Aside from the waiter who was living fire at the restaurant that I decided to try and the bunny checkout person at the store and the other random assortment of monsters I found while out and about the shopping trip was relatively uneventful. The restaurant was good I had texted myself to go back to the place called “Grillby’s”

I was on the elevator back up to my apartment arms full of groceries on trip one of about four. When I heard voices one much more higher pitched than the other, both were male. I rounded the corner and saw the skeleton from earlier and then another, much much taller, skeleton which wore plate armour compared to the smaller one’s hoodie which I hadn’t noticed before. Like I knew he had been wearing something, but it’s not like I thought he was just walking around the hallway naked or something I just hadn’t noticed it was a hoodie. I forced myself to not freak out over something as silly as a hoodie of all things, but I was too used to being playfully teased about wearing my hoodie 24/7 and judging by the marks, stains and tears in this guy’s I could tell it had been well loved. He looked at me he looked completely at ease with the other skeleton standing over him. He was even huffing in laughter.

“SANS I SWEAR YOU AND THOSE TERRIBLE JOKES HAVE GOT TO STOP I’VE PUT UP WITH THEM FOR TOO LONG FOR YOU TO KEEP BRINGING THEM BACK!” The bigger skeleton snarled

“Aww come on Pap. You’re smiling, and besides my jokes are pretty HUMOROUS if you’d care to listen to them.” The skeleton Sans said nonchalantly. I forcibly exhaled at his pun they were pretty bad but not to the point at yelling at him for it.

“I KNOW I AM AND I HATE IT! WAIT DID YOU JUST?!” The grin on Sans’ face only widened and the big one sighed. I know Sans had called the larger skeleton something, but I suspected that it was only a nickname. I could tell that ‘Sans’ wasn't a nickname.

The big one didn’t seem to the type to give nicknames to people. The big skeleton noticed that Sans wasn’t making eye contact with him anymore and turned to see what of all things could possibly be more interesting than him. I was already most of the way to my door doing my best to sneak passed without being noticed. The big skeleton had to be at least 8 feet tall and looked a little more comical than his smaller companion. With a jawbone that was a separate bone entirely and looked like if he wanted to he could detach it no questions asked and his bottom jaw just dropped when he saw me.

“Is… Is that a human, Sans?” He attempted to whisper to the smaller skeleton. I whipped my tail nervously attempting to find the door handle while not taking my eyes off this weird pair of monsters. Sans saw my tail and his eyes widened spectacularly.

“No, Papyrus, I don’t think that’s a human.” Papyrus. That was the big one’s name. Papyrus took a curious step towards me and I found the door handle and pulled down on it my tail spiking out in every direction. Realizing that I was kind of gotten myself into a corner as the skeleton blocked any chance of me bolting past him if I got into trouble. Sure I could run into the house but what then? I didn’t exactly have real food I was just carrying the junk food right now. I realized I was becoming a lot more animal like than was probably necessary and I controlled myself, forcing my tail to relax and forced my facial expression into one of cautiousness rather than ‘Imma fight ya, if you get to close.

“Papyrus wait you’re scaring her. Back off a little. Give her room to get out of here if she feels that she needs to get the heck out of dodge.” Sans said noticing my discomfort.

Papyrus seemed rather disappointed he couldn’t get a closer look. _He’s a child in an adult’s body_ I realized as he shot Sans the look that a toddler gives their parents when they refuse to get them a stuffed animal at the store. But he backed up. I let go of the breath I didn’t know I’d been holding.

The smaller skeleton seemed to relax a little too. “What’s your name?” he asked.

“I--I’m Riley. Who are you guys?” I said stuttering a little bit more than usual.

“Riley? Hmmm that sounds like a human name. It.’s a nice name, don’t get me wrong. It just seems a little odd for a monster. My name’s Sans and this is my brother Papyrus.” He said as if he was contemplating what my name could mean.

Papyrus nodded excitedly “I AM THE GREAT PAPYRUS TRAINING TO BECOME A MEMBER OF THE ROYAL GUARD AND I AM PLEASED TO MEET YOU RILEY EVEN THOUGH YOU SEEM A LITTLE LESS THAN PLEASED TO MEET ME…”

“Just because she’s a little shy and daunted by something much bigger and louder than her doesn’t mean she isn’t happy to meet you.” Sans said and turned to me “You weren’t raised by monsters were you?”

“No I didn’t know they existed until they started coming to the surface.”

“But you are a monster right?”

“Yea.”

“Interesting. I wonder how that happened.”

“How what happened?”

“SANS YOU CAN’T JUST ASK IF SHE WAS RAISED BY MONSTERS!!!”

“What’s to say I can’t?”

“YOU HAVE TO BE FRIENDS WITH THEM BEFORE YOU START ASKING THESE THINGS! WHAT IF SHE DOESN’T WANT YOU TO KNOW?”

At this point I had opened my door and had moved my load of bags onto the island. Papyrus was loud enough I could hear him perfectly clear from inside. I rejoined them in the hall.

“I swear to god, Pap, if you fight her in an attempt to be friends with her..”

“Yeah I’m going to have to strongly advise against that.” I agreed

“No no not like a fist fight he wouldn’t actually hurt you but like.. It’s hard to explain.”

“Well let’s not either way.”

“Yeah Pap please just let the poor mix go.”

“What did you just call me?”

“Oh my bad I refered to you as a mix like a hybrid.”

“Not understanding your logic”

“You’re definitely not human but I don’t think you're 100% monster either.”

“Just speak english already this is confusing!”

“I’m saying that one of your parents was a monster and the other was a human. It's a compliment”

“Oh. What makes you say that?”

“Well you have powers that I can tell just by looking at you but human genetics give you a special trait we call “Determination” it’s your ability to keep going even if you keep failing, your will to get up and try again. You just being here having this conversation with me proves that to me. You could’ve bolted when Papyrus started cornering you, but you didn’t. You gave it a chance to turn out differently, and when you meet another mix.. Well i can kinda just tell.”

“Wait your a mix?”

“I wasn’t born one but yeah.”

“How did you become one?” He flinched his eyes getting misty momentarily before he said

“It doesn’t matter”

“Sorry I didn’t mean to..”

“No it’s okay really. Do you need help with the groceries?”

“I’m okay thanks.”

“If you say so.”

“HEY WE SHOULD ALL EXCHANGE PHONE NUMBERS SO WE CAN ALL BE FRIENDS AND HANG OUT SOMETIME!!!” Papyrus said realizing we were about to part ways. I glanced at Sans who shrugged indifferently. I didn’t see why not. Despite the fact that the first introductions had been incredibly awkward they were good guys and it’d give me new friends off the bat.We all swapped phone numbers and Sans slithered off back into his apartment after a quiet, “See ya around.”

Papyrus stayed for a minute to make sure I was alright bringing myself from my car to the apartment. I promised him I was fine and he nodded and disappeared into the their apartment. I spent the next hour or so dragging my things up and down the elevator shaft and finding places to put all of the food. When I was done I plopped down on the couch and checked my phone I noticed I got a text from Sans and a couple game notifications so I couldn’t read it from my lockscreen. I unlocked my phone with my fingerprint and opened the text

“Hey I just wanted to let you know that I’m sorry about using the term ‘mixed’ earlier I know humans have had a touchy relationship with the word and I should’ve given you some context for it or have found a better word for it.”

I responded with a “It’s chill, fam. I’m more concerned that I upset you.” I double triple checked it to make sure there wasn’t any grammar or spelling errors and I was mildly concerned about the “fam” but I figured he would know what it meant. He seemed like a smart guy. After a few minutes of me looking at the text I sent it almost having a heart attack as I did. He responded fairly quickly with a

“Nah just remembering something it’s fine.”

“You sure? I don’t want to have insulted you’re great aunt Petra without realizing I had.”

“Nope great aunt Petra can rest in peace knowing you didn’t offend her in any way. It’s just a memory it’s fine I promise.”

“If you say so. Is Papyrus up to anything?” I said still not 100% sure he was telling me the entire truth.

“Just watching MTT. Why? Does he strike your fancy?”

“No Sans I was just changing the subject. Way to make it weird.”

“If you say so.”

“I can’t telling if your just teasing me or not.”

“You’ll never know now will you?”

“Probably not.”

“* Maniacal laughter*” I rolled my eyes laughing despite myself.

I was trying to come up with a retort but the only one I could come up with was a little risky. My brain attempted to kill me as I typed it out “Here’s a better question for ya. Are you sure that I’m not right up your alley?” _That sounds super creepy. No. Delete it and jump in a ditch._ I definitely deleted it but didn’t jump in a ditch instead I decided that showering and getting all the dirt and stuff off my from the car ride was probably a smarter choice so I could give myself time to reconsider my life decisions. Grateful that I hadn’t sent it (I told ya sometimes anxiety stops you from making poor life choices.)

After my shower I decided that I should start food. I put a pot of water on the stove and turned it on dumping a decent amount of salt in it grabbing a box of noodles and a stick of butter from my pantry (a cabinet in the wall that was taller than most of the other ones) and fridge respectively. I heard my phone go off by the couch and went over to see why it was buzzing

“You’re making spaghetti aren’t you?” Sans had texted me.

“Uh... Yeah. How’d you guess?”

“Pap can hear a box of noodles being opened from Grillby’s.”

“Yikes.”

“Yeah he’s a bit of a spaghetti freak.”

“If I hadn’t just met him I would’ve immediately looked around to see if you had somehow managed to get in here.”

“Yeah Riley I’m just casually laying in your bed watching you make spaghetti.”

“That’s creepy.”

“You wouldn’t even know either ‘cuz I’d just teleport out of there before you saw me.”

“Okay I’m officially declaring you a stalker and have the police on speed dial.”

“I’m joking! I’m joking!”

“I know you are but no surprise teleporting to my room okay?”

“Deal.” I got two texts at once making me jump. One was from Sans the other was from Papyrus.

Sans’ said “Someone needs to get me out of here. Papyrus is attempting the cooking thing again.”

Papyrus’ said “HEY SO MAYBE SINCE YOU’RE MAKING SPAGHETTI TOO WE SHOULD ALL JUST MEET UP AND WATCH METTATON TOGETHER!!” I replied to Papyrus’ with

“As long as I can go to bed by 9 I have work tomorrow” I glanced at the clock 5:30 it wasn’t that late. To Sans’ I replied

“Well apparently Papyrus is having Mettaton binge watching spree so you could probably snag something and say it was for movie night.”

“I like that plan” Sans responded and Papyrus said

“I’LL MAKE SURE YOU DON’T GET CAUGHT UP IN THE LIGHT THAT IS METTATON SO YOU CAN WORK TOMORROW!”

“Thanks Papyrus.” I said before going to see what Sans had texted me

“Imma be super dumb and just surprise teleport to Grillby’s get food than surprise teleport and nab some junk food, and then surprise teleport to your couch and not get up ever again.”

“You think you’re funny.”

“You're right. I do. I’ll get up eventually”

“You have problems dude.”

“I know. But you’re not going to stop me?”

“I probably have a bigger TV, and judging by my habits, a cleaner apartment, than you guys do.”

“That went better than I expected it would. I expected to be pushed out of your place with a rolling pin.”

“You are a shameless flirt, I’m noticing”

“Shameless is the wrong word. Lmao Grillby is too used to me surprise teleporting to the restaurant.”

“NO! Bad Sans! No texting and driving!”

“I’m not driving! I’m surprise teleporting!”

“NO! Bad Sans! No texting and surprise teleporting!” A blue flash shot through the room and Sans was there one arm behind his head. Legs crossed on sprawled out on the couch looking at his phone. _Oh he does actually teleport maybe he was in the garage... Doubtful but he could've been._

“I’m here so can I text you now?”

“Unless it’s something Papyrus can’t know I don’t see the point.” The door reverberated as Papyrus knocked at it.

“Oh thank god he remembered he can’t just go strolling into people’s houses.” I shot him a look as I went to let Papyrus in. “I told you ahead of time okay?” I rolled my eyes and opened the door.

Papyrus looked ecstatic and said “HI RILEY!! WE’RE ALL GOING TO WATCH METTATON TOGETHER SO I HOPE YOUR TV’S READY!!”

“Yup the Tv’s as ready as it’s getting. Is Mettaton cool?” I said not exactly remembering whether Mettaton was one of those 6 o’clock news reporters that you only turned on because you were bored or if he was one of the Daily Show types were you watched his weekly episodes live.

“HE’S MORE THAN COOL! HE’S METTATON!!” Papyrus said descriptively.

“Alright sounds like it’s going to be fun. Why don’t you go chill with Sans for a bit while I get food, ‘cuz I’m hungry”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to be doing the actual sitting down and watching Mettaton thing here next week so yeah sorry if it feels a little cut off. I wanted to get it up before I got caught up in life.


	4. Some advice from an old friend

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Riley gets some advice for her new friends from an old friend

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was feeling productive so here's chapter three

I finished making my food and between me and Papyrus it was probably best that Sans had his own food. Papyrus was excitedly filling me in one what had happened doing “Undertale the musical,” where Mettaton and a kid named Frisk (apparently the human that freed the monsters from the underground) were apparently in a temporary relationship before Mettaton threw Frisk in the dungeon and attempted to kill them. Frisk was able to survive and Mettaton went on a giant monologue about how his creator, Alphys, had planned the entire thing before transforming into real Mettaton, not just computer Mettaton, but humanoid Mettaton and the two of them had a pose-off before Frisk was able to run Mettaton out of batteries (not like that) and went on to confront Asgore, King of monsters. At least that’s what I got from it. Sans told me that Papyrus would probably show me the episode explaining all of this at some point if he got the chance. Which I was okay with.

I sat on the couch making Sans sit upright and not be stretched out over the entire couch. Papyrus made me sit in the middle so I could be next to both of the brothers.

“I’ll trade you for your hoodie.” I asked noticing that his hoodie even had a super fuzzy inside.

“No.” He said deadpan clicking through the channels on the remote.

“Well it was worth a try.” I said turning away. Focusing on the live TV show where Frisk was “Cooking with a killer robot.” Sans commented about how this was a rerun but Papyrus seemed excited to watch it all the same. The show was a little out of the ordinary than from the Mettaton I was used to. It was pretty silly and I was tired so it was the funniest thing to ever see the light of day for me. Papyrus looked ecstatic that I was laughing as hard as I was. Sans looked bored at the show like he’d seen it 17 times before and could recite every line if he wanted to but was watching my reactions curiously. It was almost weird how he seemed to notice and care about my reactions to the tiniest things. Maybe it was just seeing where the similarities between us ended. I really hoped it was something innocent like that. I knew it was but my brain was trying to turn it into something else. Not that I wanted it to become something like that, my brain just jumps to conclusions. Besides I just met this guy and I had only had one boyfriend before and that hadn’t exactly worked out for me. I just hoped we were on the same page with that, and that he didn’t go for the love at first sight deal. Now, before you go and assume that I’m diving headfirst into the shallow end (which I probably am but not the point,) he was looking at me, a lot, and it wasn’t exactly the ‘are you having fun? Are you enjoying my hobbies too?’ kind of look that Papyrus was giving me. Sans’ was more observant, studying, more like he was taking notes to see what I liked and didn’t like. It was strange. I stopped worrying about it deciding to enjoy Mettaton now and ask him about it later.

Aside from that the two of them were pretty funny and _I know what you're probably thinking Isn’t it awkward for her to hang out with two dudes by herself, and that she only has dude friends so far here?_ The answer? Not really. I had always connected to guys more and I’m confident in my abilities if I got into trouble also my phone was sitting in my lap within arms reach so I was pretty comfortable and felt pretty safe. About the only having guy friends. No it wasn’t that weird for me. I had always gotten along better with guys and could have an intelligent conversation with most any of them. Less about sports, but I could talk about video games and those types of things with them. Hell my two best friends were guys and that wasn’t usually awkward. Sure a lot of people thought we were dating when we were hanging out together but aside from that both would occasionally come to me for dating advice which is weird because I have no clue but I do the best that I can. I was jolted from my thoughts by my phone buzzing. I clicked it out of sleep mode. _Wow it’s already 8:30._ I looked up at the Tv screen to see the ending credits of the 7th episode we had watched. They were actually pretty good.

“Alright Papyrus one more episode than you guys gotta get outa here.”

“ALRIGHT I HAVE TO PICK THE BEST ONE FOR US TO WATCH BEFORE WE GO.”

“Don’t take too long otherwise we will have to watch some other time.” I said glancing back down at my phone the contact name simply said Rob (Your mentor. Don’t forget it!). I wrote the Rob part but he had definitely changed it before he graduated high school my freshman year. He had been my mentor and had helped me be able to socialize after 9ish years of having next to zero social interactions as well as helped me learn how to control my shapeshifting abilities putting himself at risk to some degree because that was the time when I didn’t retain my personality when I transformed and we continued to be close friends to each other for the last 8 years after I thought I had lost him for the rest of my life. He had apparently thought the same and kept in close contact. He had even helped me find the apartment that was close to the theatre because he happened to work there as an actor and helped me out when he wasn’t at rehearsal because he loved theatre so much and I guess some of it had rubbed off on me. I unlocked my phone and checked the text

“How’d your first day go?”

“Is that you’re boyfriend?” Sans asked looking down at the phone and seeing Rob’s contact name.

“Are we dating?” I responded mentally facepalming that Sans had fallen into the trap that most other people did.

“I’m sorry?”

“I think it was pretty straight forward question. Are we dating?”

“I don’t think so what does that have to do with me asking if he was your boyfriend.”

“There we go. We aren’t dating last time I checked but we can still be friends. Magical right? I can have guy friends and be a girl and not be automatically dating them.”

“Sorry I didn’t think you’d get so defensive over it.”

“No it’s fine. You had no way of knowing. I shouldn’t have snapped like that. I’m just tired of people asking me that.”

“I can imagine.”

I looked back down at my phone unlocked it again and typed out a message. “I mean I think we’re at 63 people in the last month who have thought we were dating now.”

“Really? You talked to somebody today? You’re all grown up from the little freshman who clung to my side like a magnet and wouldn’t talk to anyone unless I gave the go ahead.” He responded my memory floated back to that time. It seemed so simple now, but I knew that I was probably better off now.

“Well they talked to me more of.”

“That’s next to the only way to do it still, I see.”

“Doesn’t mean it wasn’t the most awkward moment of my life.”

“More awkward than asking Sam out?”

“I decided to delete that memory. Who is Sam?”

“Bad question. I’m sorry. What made it the most awkward moment of your life?”

“Well they were the first to monsters I had actually seen aside from the employees at the places I visited for lunch and to do some shopping.”

“Okay I can see how that’s weird. Anything else?”

“Well there was a giant skeleton and it’s like 8 feet tall, I swear, and it had this plate armour and it is the biggest loudest thing I’ve ever seen.”

“I thought I claimed the loudest.”

“You should meet this guy. I think you two would get along. Anyways he was arguing with this other skeleton who’s about my size so a dwarf in the first guy’s shadow. The little one didn’t look to concerned with the big one chewing him out for making a bad pun.” Papyrus happily announced that he had found the best episode ever. It had only been a couple minutes so I put the phone up after sending the text and telling Rob I would talk to him in a minute. This episode was the battle between Frisk and Mettaton. The last 10 minutes of the episode had Papyrus on the edge of his seat like he had never seen the ending before. Sans was chilling like he had seen this at least 8 times before. (Which he had if I knew anything about the brothers.) I was somewhere in the middle excited to see the ending but also not doing a happy dance around the room when Frisk won the fight but didn’t kill Mettaton. For being the protagonist, Frisk sure didn’t say a whole heck of a lot. “Alright you guys, go home. I gotta go to work tomorrow and not be up till midnight as much fun as this was.”

I helped Sans off the couch and Sans somehow got Papyrus to stop dancing in circles. I think it was the threat of not reading Papyrus his bedtime story that did it, but i’m not entirely sure. It could mean like, “I’m not paying the rent next month so you have to sit in the cold next month” to them in secret language. But when Papyrus asked if Sans would read “Fluffy Bunny” to him, I knew that it was not some secret code. It was a literal bedtime story. Sans agreed and Papyrus hopped excitedly into the closed door. Sans just watched him get back up and try the door again this time opening it first.

“Is he gonna be alright? He hit the door pretty hard.” I asked Sans who held up three fingers and put one down then another and then the last one and I heard a crash.

“Yeah he’ll be fine he just forgets that he has to open the door first.”

“Are you sure he’s alright?”

“Yeah he’s perfectly normal. I’ve just done what I can to not expose him to the evil the world has in it.”

“So he can’t open door when he’s a full grown adult?”

“His brain works perfectly fine if that’s what you’re asking. He’s just rambunctious and the bedtime story always makes him go nuts.”

“Alright. If you say so. Thanks for coming and also tell Papyrus I said thanks for bringing up the idea.”

“I will. I’m glad he did too. Sometimes we quiet people need a little encouragement before we can be friends.” He winked and disappeared the door seeming to close on it’s own accord.

“Wait you can turn invisible too?” my phone buzzed in my hand. Sans had texted me

“No. I teleported, stopped at the door for a second, closed it, and teleported to my apartment.”

“Tricky tricky.”

“Don’t worry about it. I have more powers that’ll concern you more if and when you see them.”

“How come you get all the powers?”

“I have an entire section of my life I deleted the memories for.”

“Me too! But you don’t see me running around reading people’s minds”

“You noticed that?”

“I’m not Papyrus in that everything flies over my head.”

“Fair enough. Well I’ll just say that the process to get the special powers was a lot more painful than you would think.”

“Alright well I would keep pushing you to spill the beans, but I can tell I’m diving into a more personal realm so I’ll drop it for now.”

“I appreciate it.”

I couldn’t think of anything to say in response so I went back to my conversation with Robert. (probably better known as Rob)

“Well that was interesting”

He responded next to immediately with “What happened?”

“I believe that the saying ‘things may not always be as they appear’ is holding true.”

“Hey I know you love to be super cryptic but we’re both going to bed soon so I’d appreciate knowing what happened in less than an hour.”

I recapped in about 10 minutes and Robert would only interrupt if he had a question and at the end he said “ From what I noticed you guys went from ‘a fight’s about to break loose’ to ‘Oh it’s fine now come on over and watch Tv with me.’ What changed?”

I paused thinking for a moment “I’m not sure. I think they kind of started to remind me of theatre company and I trust theatre company, so...”

“You do know that they are not theatre company and that they aren’t necessarily to be trusted 100% when you first meet them right?”

“No. I hadn’t really thought about it after the first encounter in the hallway.”

“Alright just keep that in mind. I’m happy you’ve gotten some new friends and that you’re not being allowed to hermit. Just be aware you can say no to things if you think that things are going too quickly and need to slow down. Like when Sans was checking you out during the movie.”

“He was not checking me out!”

“Um. Pretty sure he was. Maybe not for sexual reasons but just looking at you for a decent amount of time is the definition of checking you out to the word. Trust me as a guy who has been on both ends of it, I know. Maybe you don’t see that way because you’ve only had a limited amount of experience and it’s been 8 years and that’s okay just be careful.”

“Alright I will thanks.”

“I didn’t mean to offend you or your new friends! I’m just telling you to be cautious!”

“I know and you didn’t offend me, I promise. You’re right. You’ve had a lot more experience than I have and I am allowed to slow down if I want to. I’m being sincere.”

“It’s hard not to be able to see your expression. Everything you think is shown through your face and I miss seeing you every day and being able to check on how you’re doing.”

“That sounded incredibly romantic even though I know that’s not what you meant it to be and you have a girlfriend and she’s been super lenient on you texting me and you don’t see me like that but I miss you too and we’ll get to see each other tomorrow.”

“Yeah I’m realizing that I have to be the most awkward texter ever. I’m going to bed so I don’t get up at noon tomorrow by mistake.”

“Oh honey, if you think you’re an awkward texter than you haven’t met me. The fact that you’re worried you’re not going to get up until noon concerns me.”

“Do you call everyone honey or just me?”

“Only my friends.”

“ Try pulling that one on you’re skeleton friend see what he thinks of it.”

“Stop making fun of the things I call people!”

“He’ll probably be super concerned by it.”

“Fine! I’ll try it if only to see his face.”

“ Take pictures!” I laughed at the joke that was a reference to something he had never played but had heard me say it so occasionally shot back at me. I plugged in my phone, went to the kitchen and took the 6 or so meds that kept my immune system from attacking my liver oh and the one that made it so I could sleep at all, and climbed into bed, glad to be back on the familiar mattress rather than the air mattress that I had been on for the past week or so, and fell asleep pretty quickly, exhausted after the short but none the less eventful first day here.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't ask about the human names I had outside inspiration for all of them except Riley's. Riley's name I had to google.


	5. I thought I was going to get out of here on time but texting.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Well Riley is starting to find things out about Sans and it's starting to make her nervous.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here's chapter four I was all over the place today

The next morning I woke up excited as a child on their birthday. Running through my apartment trying to do 7 things at once. Making the bed, getting food in my stomach, taking my meds again, (just not the one that knocks me out, that one doesn’t affect my immune system at all it just lets me sleep), taking a shower, and flat ironing my hair. Glancing at my makeup supply, but having never been a makeup person, shrugging and walking out the door. A backpack over my shoulder. With a binder that showcased all the shows I had done and some notes inside along with lunch and some blank paper just so I could take notes. 

I walked into the hallway careful not to slam the door this time because it was like 6 in the morning and people would still be sleeping. I looked around, my eyes adjusting to the dim light as the sun’s rays just began to creep in the window at the end of the hall. Below the window, I thought I saw a curled up ball with a glowing blue and yellow fire coming from it but I looked again and there wasn’t anything aside from the wall. Okay? I shrugged and got into the elevator clicking the parking garage floor that I had parked in the day before, Why do I keep seeing things? I thought as I thought I saw the blue flash from yesterday when Sans “Surprise teleported” to the couch. 

“You up yet?” I texted him mildly nervous now 

“Yeah what’s up?” He responded. 

“Are you teleporting around the building?” 

“Maybe why?” I let out a tiny sigh of relief as he said this. It’s just Sans 

“I keep thinking I’m seeing you teleporting around. I just wasn’t sure. Why are you up this early?” 

“I’m an early riser. Why are you up this early?” 

“I work. Was that you at the end of the hallway? Was something on fire? You good?” 

“Yeah that was me and no don’t worry about the fire. It just comes with the powers.” 

“Uhhhhh…” 

“My left eye glows when I feel extreme emotions: Rage, Fear, Depression, Joy, Disgust, Anticipation, Surprise, Vigilance, Grief.” 

“You just recited almost all of Robert Plutchik's theory of emotions. Why was your eye glowing in the hallway?” 

“ It’s just what I know about the powers. I don’t mean to recite anything. I think it was a combination of Rage, Fear, and Disgust, even a little Grief.” 

“Do you want me to ask why or just pretend I didn’t see you?” 

“Don’t worry about me. You didn’t see me in the hallway.” 

“Alright, but if something's wrong, you shouldn’t hide it from your brother. He’ll notice, I think.” 

“I won’t. Thanks.” 

“Yeah and if you don’t want to explain it to him, there are always professionals who you can talk to.” 

“No doctors. Just, just no.” 

“It was just a suggestion. Now go home and do something instead of just sit there by the elevator texting me like an idiot and let me get to work.” 

“I’m going. I’m going.” There was a blue flash from the elevator shaft and as I drove past it. I saw water stains on the pavement. Was he crying? I wasn’t sure what was going on with him but whatever it was that he had attempted to delete out of his memories kept coming back to haunt him and I wasn’t sure if I could do anything besides tell him to get help, if he would let me. We did just meet after all, and maybe I shouldn’t be worried about someone else’s problems. From my experience, I knew that letting them go could result in a less desirable outcome. Hopefully he would be smart and go to his brother or get someone to help him before it got to that point. But I wasn’t to sure if that was an option for him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I know that this was super short I just wanted to put some Sans thing in before I went off doing several, several chapters Riley's backstory. Also the capitalized names of emotions was intentional it didn't just get through the editing.


	6. History is a giant circle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Riley meets up with Rob again and they talk

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this is super late I'm sorry I've been writing ahead and I've had this ready to go for while I just haven't checked it yet.

I reached the theatre with relatively no problem (Shout out to Google lady for making sure I don’t end up in timbuktu despite the numerous occasions that I have cussed her out for not working.) I walked in the giant golden rimmed doors pushing them with relative ease getting used to the extra couple pounds. I walked through the lobby which was large and in charge with the bathrooms on either sides and red curtains that formed a hallway into the auditorium I opened the door into the auditorium and it took my breath away there were rows upon rows of seats. Even in the near blackness it was breathtaking. Sure the auditoriums in high school and college had been large and in charge but nothing like this. There were enough seats that I wouldn’t be entirely to surprised if it went on forever. My phone buzzed in the back pocket of my sweats (I know sweats with butt pockets fancy right?) 

“If you're stunned by the view down there you should see it from up here.” Rob had texted me. I looked up at booth the tall human male peace signed me his blue eyes sparkling. I almost sprinted up the staircase to the booth. Bursting in the door heavy but flying open with ease as I smashed by entire weight into it I almost fell thanks to the door giving into me but Rob grabbed me by the hood and wrapped his arm under my belly and pushed me up. “Still the same old energetic freshman as the one I left when I graduated huh?” he said his voice almost a purr. I attacked him with the biggest hug he had ever gotten. Ever. He hugged me back crushing the air out of me. Rob looked pretty much the same as how I remembered him his short golden hair flipped to one side. His big sapphire blue eyes containing an expression that was combination of father-like serious and a child who still only knew the good of the world. Rob wore a thick leather jacket over a dark blue shirt with jeans. He dressed exactly as he had the day we had parted ways. Sure we had seen each other off and on at get togethers with the rest of everyone else but it wasn’t quite the same as seeing each other on our home field, relaxed and truly ourselves. We let go of each other after long moment “Thanks for helping me get in here. Are you not in rehearsal right now?” I asked clearing my throat as the sentence started off like I had ran out in the desert for hours before coming here. 

“How many of the are graduated theatre children?” 

“You’ll see.” 

“Why do you hang me in suspense all the time?!” 

“Because I don’t want to be replaced all the sudden.” He said the widest smile on his face. 

“What do you mean?” trying my best to look as young and as innocent as possible like I had followed the rules to the word my entire life 

“I mean you have that new boyfriend of yours...” 

“Rob!!! You know my rule on that!!” 

“No dating or having any emotional attachments to people that’s beyond friendship, casual things are allowed but nothing more.” He said reciting a promise I had made myself years ago when the only boyfriend I had ever had started turning to violence to get what he wanted out of me. He succeeded for much longer than I ever will admit but with the help of Rob and some other friends I ended things with him and made that promise. So I could never be that vulnerable and make the same mistake again and 8 years later I had held true to that promise not even having crushes on people and I didn’t plan on overwriting that now simply because the skelebros are new to me and I wasn’t so much of an introvert that I had a crush on someone after a day of knowing them. “You know I was using the term ‘boyfriend’ loosely” 

“A better term would’ve been guy friend” 

“I know it would have but I like watching you blush like that.” 

“You’re a cruel, cruel man Rob you know that?” 

“I know but it’s not going to stop be from teasing you.” He said starting to walk out of the booth I followed “But is he your boyfriend though?” 

“Which one?” 

“Either.” 

“Yes I’m dating both of them at the same time and I’ve known them for less than 24 hours. No Robert again no dating” 

“If you say so.” 

“The hell is that supposed to mean?” 

“That maybe you don’t like one of them now but I feel like you’re going to reconsider.” 

“No. No dating thanks to Sam.” 

“Alright but just because one guy was an ass and is now solidly behind bars because of it doesn’t mean every guy is. It’s okay to fall in love again.” 

“But it’s not. I’m not putting myself through that again.” 

“I’m not saying you have to but now you have a chance to start over again I’d like you to see that it doesn’t always end badly.” 

“I’ll try it again when I’m dead.” 

“Not even going to try the having a crush thing?” 

“The reason it’s called a crush is because you get your heart crushed.” 

“Look I’m not going to make you but I don’t want you to have some mistrust of people because of one asshole in a flood of other amazing ones.” 

“You know Sam isn’t the only reason I struggle so much with people.” 

“Yeah but I know he’s the reason you can’t get too close to them.” 

“Weren’t you just saying not to jump into anything with them because I just met them? Like last night.” 

“I’m not saying don’t be cautious. I’m just saying your life doesn’t have to be controlled by one bad person.” 

“Notice I still have friends and still make new friends.” 

“If that’s all you want from them.” We walked in silence through the rows of the auditorium still having a few minutes to wait for our friends. 

“Rob?” 

“Yeah?” 

“What is it like?” 

“To?” 

“To have a healthy relationship with someone?” 

“I wish I could give you an answer that fits all the possible situations.” 

“How many can there be?” 

“Well love can mean a lot of different of things to a lot of different people. For example you only love people in a non-romantic way. Whereas someone else might love more than one person in a romantic way. Or someone might love their family more than their own health and will put their family first no matter what. There is no fine line that determines what love feels like for everyone. Hell I could tell you what love meant to me and you wouldn’t even know what that was like because it’s different for you, it’s not bad it’s just different, and people also can change what love means to them over the course of their lifetime. There’s just no way I can sum up an entire planet in any way that makes sense.” 

“That made sense to me. Thank you, For being honest.” 

“I wish I had a better answer” 

“What if I worded what I was asking better?” 

“I’ll do my best” 

“What is it like to fall in love with someone?” 

“Come on Rye! You know this one! There is a reason you stayed with theatre company after all these years.” 

“You know what I mean.” 

“Like romantically? Well…” 

“Like physically, mentally, what happens in response?” 

“Besides the obvious you mean?” 

“Yes dummy! I know that part already!” 

“Well you start to become almost a different person around them trying to be perfect so they maybe see you as a potential partner and you start to try to get a much as you can into their bubble and their life and try and fail to get the flirting thing down and you get super excited when they say your name and when they reciprocate trying to get into your bubble and then when you’ve found the person you’re sure you’ve fallen for you try to say something to them and if they say no you get up and try again with someone new and if they say yes then begins the phase you and your partner have to discover for yourselves.” 

“You make it sound like it’s something that is magical, beautiful and perfect and that if there is a rain cloud in your paradise you put up your umbrella and the sun comes back out again.” 

“Because the sun always will come back Rye, you’ve just got to have a little faith that it will someday maybe not today or not tomorrow but someday the sun will come back, and when it does maybe you’re partner will need your help chasing their raincloud away because it’s not a journey they can embark on alone.” 

“I hope you’re right.” 

“I am. You’ll see” 

“I trust you but that rule isn’t going away until I do see the sun peek out from behind the clouds.” 

“I think I can already see it’s first rays” 

“Are you referring to..?” 

“No. The fact that you’re willing to look for the sun again is it’s own first rays.” 

“How come you’re so much smarter than me? You’re only four years older than me.” 

“An extra four years can make all the difference. You know that.” 

“True. Hey did I tell you that I got an apprentice my senior year?” 

“Did you now? How did it go?” 

“He was everything I could’ve asked for in an apprentice. He was patient and he asked questions when he wasn’t sure on how to do things and he was a fast learner too. He started on lights I was sound chief for his very first show and he was by himself with no crew and he-- he struggled on the lights he couldn’t focus them. What happened between us is almost exactly what you did to help me. I helped him be able to socialize and helped him learn what it meant to be human again and I was always so so proud he was my freshman no one could touch him as long as I was there.” Rob had tears welling up in his eyes. 

“They say history repeats itself and I guess this is the 6th generation that’s held true. I thought that the chain was going to end when I picked my freshman because I didn’t teach you mentoring skills or how to pass on the skills I taught you. But you have made me proud to have been your senior more times than one.” 

“And I was always so proud to be your freshman. Ever since day one.” Memories flooded back to me like a landslide. I was wrestling with another freshman in the makeup room as Rob stood nearby keeping an eye on the tiny ones and making sure they didn’t hurt each other as he got into costume sipping tea nervous for his very last show of his high school career not sure if his voice would hold out. He separated the two freshman telling me he wanted to show me something. He brought me into the shop he taught me how to memorize lines how to project my voice so I could be heard. How to become another person on stage. He taught me how to stage fight. How to use the nail gun when I asked him why he said “I’m not going to be able to complete my last show if I do I will lose my voice permanently. I want you to grow up and someday be a better actor, a better technician, a better person than I ever could be and I know that when you grow up I’m going to see you and think ‘She’s MY freshman I trained her and she took that torch and ran the olympics with it’ he didn’t complete his last show his best friend took his place as the booming voice behind the curtain. While Robert still acted and climbed into the balloon that night. It wasn’t the same Robert who found a lost freshman and helped make sure it survived its first year of high school gave it a safe place and a family. That Robert died that night. Three years later when we did the same show that destroyed Robert’s career and I got the part that Robert played I wore the same hat used the same props. Used the same balloon. Boomed with the same voice and shook the auditorium too it’s roots. I when I came out for my final bow I saw Robert front row. Standing, tears streaming down his face his expression told me enough about what was going on in his head at that moment. I had made my mentor proud to have been my mentor he never would’ve asked for anyone else to be that for him. I revived the Robert who had been dead and gone for three years and he told me after show “You have made me have the inspiration to be an actor again. You are making me so proud to have been the one who met you first.” and he stayed for strike watched me win the coat for my very last show (coat is basically the mvp award for theatre) and watched as the entire auditorium stood up for me and cheered a the coat was put on my shoulders and he was the last one to come up and give me a hug when the rest of the mob of theatre children has dissipated to go to cast party. He hugged me for longer than I can remember and when he finally let go he told me he was proud of me and he left. I hadn’t seen that side of him for 8 years and now I saw him again now hearing my achievements about how I had passed that down to my own freshman and I saw him crying again. 

“You’re all grown up now aren’t you?” he said his voice cracking 

“I still have a long way to go.” I said trying to hold back the tears myself 

“It’s weird to think that the only reason you became an actor was so you could stop feeling bad about me losing my voice that last night of show and you said that you were going to be an actor and you were going to be the next best thing that the stage had ever seen.” 

“Its painful to watch the person who helped you through your first show to suffer through their last.” 

“I know. I had a mentor too and she was the reason I got into acting.” 

“History is a giant circle isn’t it?” 

“Yes. Yes it is."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So there you go chapter 5 now onto chapter 6 hopefully I can have a more reliable schedule since school's getting out soon but until then I have to study for finals so... Maybe I'll have chapter 7 by Saturday we'll see


	7. More friends!!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yay for reuniting with old friends!!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well I had this one ready too so here it is

“What was your freshman’s name?” 

“His name was Cason.” Robert’s eyes widened 

“Like THE Cason?” 

“Yes the one that had thousands upon thousands of people from across the globe coming to see just him. That was my freshman.” 

“Wow” 

“Yeah” 

“Wow” 

“He’s almost like your grandson.” 

“It’s weird to think that me teaching you how to stage kiss lead to you training someone to be super good and super famous.” 

“Yes. Yes it is.” 

“Who ever would’ve thought?” 

“No one I don’t think.” The auditorium door open and a shadowy mass of figures ran inside. I fluffed up my tail and growled slowly backing into the darkest corner in the auditorium. 

“Wait! Rye! Come back! Their friends not foes!” Robert called at me. The figures split enough that I could make out four individual forms all of which seemed familiar. The one farthest left stepped out of the shadows into the light cast by the booth first. He was a tall and powerful looking with playful brown eyes that shined with the familiar warmth of a teddy bear. 

“Todd!” I exclaimed in shock “I thought you moved to Wisconsin?” 

“I did but I got a job here so here we are!” 

“Wow I wasn’t expecting this!” 

“Well don’t forget about me!” The second figure called in a loud but friendly voice and he too stepped from the shaded area he was shorter than the first he also was darker in appearance but still with the light and warmth in his eyes as any friend would. 

“Matt! I missed you and I had more time with you.” 

“Remember me?” The third figure was tall. Really. Really tall. Not Papyrus big by any means but taller than Robert who was 6.5 now. His hair was long and dark and out of control like a 90’s rockstar. “Ross!!” I said to the tech overlord of my high school career everyone obeyed his commands even though he had graduated my freshman year. He had made sure that there were people who were competent on the tools in the shop while I was out honing my acting skills. The last figure stepped out of the shadows he was broad shouldered and had messy brown hair I remembered him instantly. We spent most of our high school careers at each other's throats but we had bonded and become close friends only to have him graduate my Sophomore year. “Oliver!” (See all of my friends are dudes. All of them. Except like 3 but those act more like dudes so it’s fine) I hugged each male in turn. Each of them had a memory that I kept close to me. Todd had been there when Sam first started to hurt me doing his best to comfort me even if it was just sitting there letting me vent. Matt had always been a good friend and was always there if you needed a friend. Ryan had helped the tech side of theatre in my absence (As I had been leader of the tech when I ran of to do acting). Then Oliver had been my arch enemy doing Freshman year but one of Robert’s closest friends with a little bit of Robert’s intervention we both slowed down and were willing to accept one another’s differences and became close because of these differences. Like the one time he had gotten into a fist fight with a guy who was harassing me about my tail. He tried to intervene like normal but the guy wouldn’t let up so he just kind of reacted someone broke it up and the guy got the punishment and Oliver was free to go. Lucky draw for him. 

“Why are you guys all here? You didn’t just come out here to see me did you?” I asked stepping once more from the shadows and back to Robert’s side. 

“Well no. We all work here seeing you was an added bonus we couldn’t pass up.” Oliver said in his matter-of-fact voice. 

“Well then hopefully this means I get to see you guys more often.” 

“That’s the plan. Are you going to be showing off your lights skills today?” Todd said 

“Oh! Yeah Rye I forgot to give you this it’s the time and day you're going to be showing off your skills since you need a little time to get used to the board and reprogram it and things.” Rob said handing me a sticky note. Which simple said 

“Wednesday 9:00 A.M” 

“So in two days?” 

“You have nine days.” 

“Oh. Okay thanks. I think I should start working on this. I love you guys peace out! Don’t die!” 

“Well don’t just walk away come say goodbye to us properly first!” Matt said. 

I bear hugged each of them again before slinking up the staircase to the booth again. The boys stayed down in the auditorium talking quietly to one another. 

“Blackout!” I called to them as I turned all the lights off including the ones in the booth. 

“Thank you!” They called back instinctively. Having been bred to respond as such. 

Robert called up to me “Hey if you have any questions text me and I’ll help ya out” 

“Thanks I will but I’d like to remind you I spent four years of my life being trained to do this.” I hollered back looking at the previous used file (Show) saving it and opening a new one so I could sit down and experiment with this new set of lights for myself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I don't think I'm going to be getting a chapter out for this weekend I'm losing some people right now and I still have finals so I'll try again once I have a free second when I don't feel like exploding.  
> Also way in the beginning I wrote a prologue so you can check that out.


	8. Memories...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rob and Riley have a nice chat about how things used to be

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright now for a more serious chapter before I get to a couple more fluffy (not to mention awkward) parts of this whole...whatever this is.

I played with the light board remembering the last time I had really seen Rob it had been 8 years ago the last week before his graduation and I had been trying to find a way to thank him for everything he had done for me, even though he had broken my heart finding another girl to date instead. At the time I had a crush on both him and Sam because I was a dumb freshman. After some encouragement I came up with a letter because I knew I couldn’t pull him aside to talk to him because I was still super introverted and uncomfortable and I knew I needed to say something. One of my friends told me to confess my love for him in it, which I vetoed very hard because at the time he was still getting over his breakup with the same girl who had dumped him earlier that week so I decided it was best to keep that out of it. I did however write in my neatest handwriting the following:

_Rob,_

_I don’t know how to say this, but thank you._

_Thank you for teaching me how to do lights._

_Thank you for being my first friend here._

_Thank you for not throwing me into a trash can._

_And for breaking all my stereotypes of seniors._

_Thank you for taking me under your wing and helping me through one of the roughest times of my life._

_I can’t really explain what that means unless you know my full story so here we go:_

_About 15 years ago a little girl was born, nothing seemed to particularly special about her. Her parents, both being more on the quiet side, expected their firstborn child to be the same. About 6 months into life something stopped working. I started turning yellow and turning itchy, scratching at myself until I bled and even then still clawing at myself. I wasn’t laughing or smiling or doing the things everyone else my age was doing. My parents tried everything to get me to stop and after a number of doctors poking and prodding at me they said it had something to do with my liver. Baby me didn’t understand what was happening. July 5th 2003 I got my new liver and had my gallbladder removed. That very same day, I remember smiling and laughing running between my parents knocking over stacks of cups. However I didn’t come away unscathed. I still have scars on my forehead from where I clawed at myself. I have scars on my arms from thousands of blood tests and I still have the giant scars on my belly from when I had my transplant. The liver I have now was given to me by another girl about my age. She saved my life. Along with the physical wounds I also have been diagnosed with Social Anxiety, Paranoia, and PTSD. Which make it next to impossible to live a normal life. Throughout my life I was more of a lone wolf. I had one or two close friends through 4-6 year sections of my life. Coming to high school was hard because the friend at the time had no classes with me and I was alone with much, much bigger kids. That’s where you and theatre came in. I remember the first week of school, Bona took my technical theatre class on a tour and we got to the booth and I saw the light board for the first time and I fell in love with lights and theatre and everything about it. I helped do grunt work for Nemo during the remaining of the play Radium Girls but it wasn’t until Wait Until Dark that everything changed. I like to say that my first memory of you is the first chief meeting of it when you (at least I think it was you) came up to me and said, “Hey you’re the new light guy right?”_

_I being the awkward freshman that I was said, “I think so yeah.”_

_You nodded and said, “Cool let me know if you ever need help focusing the lights. I LOVE working with those suckers.”_

_I said, “Okay. Thanks. I will.” and you smiled and walked away. At the time I thought you thought I was an incompetent 14 year old but only when the show got into full swing did I realize how much help I would need from you, and not just with the lights._

_As time passed and you acted as a mentor to me I started asking you these obscure questions attempting to relearn the rules of a social interaction. I remember that you would give me silly answers to questions you didn’t feel comfortable answering honestly and it helped me learn the social parameters and it helped me get used to the theatre company sense of humor. Later I would go on to meet the rest of theatre company a they took me in and gave me a family and a home. Without you I think I would’ve been scared off from them. As it was, they grew into my family and into the people I would give anything for. Thank you for that. Thank you for everything. I don’t know where I would be if I hadn’t met you. If you hadn’t been silently watching me making sure I was handling myself well amongst the other theatre kids during shows. Even if you weren’t active in my day-to-day life you were there when I need you so thank you. I wish you luck in college and beyond, and if you need anything I’ll do whatever I can to help you. If you need to get in contact with me you know where to find me._

_Thank you again,_

_Riley._

So it was the day of his graduation and he came in after school for banquet (where freshman get inducted into theatre company when seniors say their final goodbyes etc.) I was sitting next to one of my girlfriends who convinced me to give it to him. She told me he was there and I mentally freaked out (anxiety sucks) and I walked up to one of my other girlfriends who forcibly pushed me into his back to get me to do it and when he turned around confused I realized I was at the point of no return I held out the sheets of paper to him.

“Uhh, hi. Can I give you these?” I said nervously.

“Uhhh yeah, sure.” He said confused but taking them and I thanked him and sat back down shaking.

“Did you do it?” The girlfriend who announced his presence to me said.

“It’s said and done.” I scanned Rob over, not seeing the paper in his hands I saw them in his back pocket.

“Awesome. Do you feel better now?” She said

“I’ll tell you how I’m doing if he responds at all.” My girlfriends went aside to talk about something so I was sitting alone for the time. I was watching Rob carefully, not able to shake the gnawing in my belly. He chased off all of his friends but Oliver pulling the note back out folding it open and started reading it. Gotta blast. I thought deciding I had to pee. Oliver walked away noticing that the note was more personal. I was in the bathroom on my phone when I heard my girlfriends walk in.

“Riley is this your hiding place of choice?” one of them called.

“Yeah. Hold on. I actually had to pee.” I flushed and went out and washed my hands.

“He’s reading it.” They both said excitedly.

“Yeah I saw.”

“LOL! I saw him reading it and I practically came SPRINTING down the staircase.” The friend I was closer to said.

“Nice. When do you guys think is a safe amount of time I should hide in here pretending I don’t exist?”

“Well you’ve got to act natural about this because it makes it awkward if you're scared of him.”

“Right. So put myself to work so I stop shaking. Got it. Let’s do this.” We walked out of the bathroom and I saw him on the top of the staircase in the lobby flipping over a page reading it on his own. Act casual, I thought, waiting to get into the room that had chairs and things to help set up for banquet. Rob seemed to teleport over here snapping orders and acting like nothing at all was weird I did notice him glance at me though. Totally being ignored is 100000% fine with me. I thought just following his example.

He came back out of the room a couple minutes later with a buddy the two of them teaming to lift a table. “Wait, Nemo. Stop for a second.” Rob called to his friend next to me who was moving out of their way. I suspected that he was just readjusting but instead he held out his arm to me offering a hug. I took it wrapping my arms around his belly taking this reaction just as well as his totally chill reaction. “WAIT??” Said the louder of my two friends faintly from the back of the room Rob had just came out of. He held me like that for a really, really long time (Which I was totally chill with. Aside from the fact that I was trying not to cry the entire time. Which I did succeed at actually.) When he let go he just kept walking like nothing had happened. I walked into the room super dazed

“Did I just make that up or….?” I asked the quieter friend seeing as how the louder one had busied herself.

“No I definitely saw it.”

“That was a better reaction than I was ready for.”

“I know it was,” she said helping Oliver who was super pissy at me because he was jealous of the fact that I got a hug when all I did was write a note and Oliver was Rob’s best friend and he never got hugs. Ever. Rob was not that kind of guy. I shrugged it off completely brainwashed by the fact that I had just gotten a hug from my mentor, my Senpai of sorts, the person I looked up to more than anyone else on the planet. My friend had me help her with a table and I dragged it with her still shaking. We got up the ramp that led into the auditorium seeing our other friend “Guess who got a hug today!” My first friend said setting the table down.

“I KNOW! I SAW! IT WAS THE BEST THING EVER!!!” She responded almost jumping in excitement.

Hours later and after banquet and senior speeches (Which I didn’t cry for because it’s very very difficult for me to display my pain like that. Yes, I was being ripped apart but I didn’t show that on the outside.) Interestingly Rob did not mention me in his speech even though I thought he would. Now don’t get me wrong I’m very happy about him not but still. We were cleaning up and I was talking to my quieter friend “Do you think it’s unreasonable to ask for one more hug?” I asked.

“No just go for it. You won’t see him ever again after today.”

“Right.” I approached him getting shaky again. “Uhh. Rob is it unreasonable to ask for another hug?” I asked trying not to stutter.

“No go ahead.” He said hugging me squeezing my ribs to him. I hugged him back. This one was shorter than the first which was fine he was busy. Oliver watched this exchange and when Rob turned to him he opened his arms offering a hug. Which Rob took. My ribs were a little sore from being gripped so hard but I was alright with it. I walked back over to my friend who waiting patiently. The rest of the night was filled with tears from everyone except me, who was only able to pull one single tear. You think I’m joking but I’m not. My heart was in shambles but physically I looked fine. Me and Rob flirted around a bit more that night before parting ways for the final time. Later that night I got a text saying, “I think Oliver is jealous you got attention.” It was from Rob and I almost cried realizing he was keeping in contact.

“Yeah, no he definitely was he was being super bitchy to me. He does that when he’s mad at me.” I responded and we talked about what the plan was and here we are.

I heard the booth door open suddenly crashing back into reality. Rob walked in

“Are you actually going to do something today or are you just going to stare at the screen daydreaming about your new boyfriend?” He teased sitting next to me.

I playfully pawed his knee. “I’m not thinking about them just remembering that all I did was a note.”

“Most Freshman didn’t do anything.”

“I know, but still.”

“We’re still friends right? After 8 years? I think the note did exactly what you wanted it to.”

“Yeah. I guess.”

“I still have it you know.”

“Wow really?”

“It helped me get through college I wanted to drop out several times but I would always look at that note and think, ‘Would my freshman be proud of me for doing this?’ If the answer was yes than go ahead if it was no, I would rethink my strategy.”

“Wow.”

“Crazy huh? A couple of pieces of paper lasting 8 years? Weird.” he said

“Very strange.”

“It’s like the past won’t ever truly die because it’s always a part of you.”

“Yeah but sometimes it’s not always good.”

“Yeah but it can be if you try hard enough.”

“Sometimes it comes back and haunts you no matter how hard you try to forget it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just for kicks I guess I'll say this. Yes the note is a real thing it's not quite worded the way it is there and I don't know if my friend kept it passed reading it and no it's not like Rob and Riley we haven't seen each other since we went our separate ways and I'm okay with that we've had a couple of joking conversations over social media but aren't really "Friends" per-say so that's the story there.  
> Other note: yes my friend group actually says "LOL" in the beginning of our sentences we're weird like that


	9. I scored a date!... Well not actually... I can't describe things!!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Riley is struggling to learn the difference between hanging out and grabbing a soda and an actual date

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well here's a little bit more of a fluffy chapter and Riley maybe thinking a skeleton is cute but isn't sure and Rob's teasing sure isn't helping...

  
Me and Rob talked for a while longer about how things were compared to now. What was better and what was worse. General catching up. It was nice just to talk in person for once and being able to see his expression change.

At some point I got a text from Sans saying: “Hey do you have a minute?”

Rob started laughing. “I need to see how this goes down. I’ve never met the guy but how they text can tell you a lot about them.”

I started laughing with him. “You sure YOU don’t like him?” I prodded, to which I got a growl in response.

“I have a girlfriend you know.” Rob responded, his blue eyes glowing.

“I have my rule.” I retorted

“Rules can be broken.” He pointed out. Meeting my unrelenting eyes for a moment before sighing and saying “Just respond.”

I rolled my eyes before going to my phone. “Hey yeah I do, but just know that Rob is reading over my shoulder.” I responded.

Rob prodded me in the ribs, “Thanks for giving my presence away.” He grumbled.

“It’s only fair.” I said and my phone buzzed again.

“Rob, as in the guy you were texting last night that I thought was your boyfriend?” That sounds like Sans to put that right there.

“Yup that one.”

“Hi Rob!” I laughed at his mock extrovertedness.

“Hi new guy.” Rob responded blankly.

“He says hi.” I texted getting a ‘lol’ in response. “So did you want to talk to me about something or were you just going to flirt around?” I asked.

“I’m a little confused as to why Rob’s at your work but I had a couple things I wanted to ask.”

“Rob works with me silly! What did you want to talk about?”

“Oh I see. Well I have never actually interacted with a human that was older than about 11. I mean I have but not for longer than about 0.2 seconds since I’m a creepy skeleton guy and you really don’t see too many humans in this part of town. I just wanted to ask a couple things if you have a couple minutes.”

“I got time. What’s up?”

“Well I was wondering what the exact definition of a ‘Monster’ to humans.” I paused not sure how to respond.

“Well I think you’re asking what exactly would’ve been locked away underground. The answer to that is simply put, anything that’s not human.” I typed carefully making it a little more complicated then I needed it to be, despite the anxiety.

“Yeah there has been monsters among monsters. But that’s pretty general. Do half-humans fall under the category of monsters?”

I flinched a little but decided to tell him anyways. “There is a reason I’ve been outcast most of my life.”

“Oh. Sorry. That’s pretty general. Even if you have human blood in you, you’re still made out to be this scary thing? Even if you look human?”

“Not your fault. Yeah I’m going to generalize humans here but the human race has a habit to generalize things. We have horrible stereotypes of what someone is based solely on appearance. Oh you wear all black and are reserved? You must be emo and cut yourself. No not necessarily. It’s a really bad habit, couple centuries ago we almost ripped ourselves to pieces as we raged a war about changing the way we treat people. It was the worst war in world history causality wise and not even that was able to fix everything. It’s a lot better but still.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah and even now in some places it’s illegal for two guys to get married, or for two girls to get married. Now don’t get me wrong, a lot of humans are good people and don’t care if you look like The Kraken if you’re a good person they’ll accept you for who you are. Just a lot of people hate anything that isn’t them and it’s stupid. Your welcome to your opinion, but don’t make someone feel bad for something they can’t change.”

“Is it safe to assume you’re one of the Kraken people and don’t care if my brother likes guys?” I was a little surprised by the fact he was asking for his brother.

“He’s gay?”

“Yeah.”

“If it makes him happy, I don’t care what he’s into.”

“Thank god. I’m glad I wouldn’t have to kill you. We had a guy once who attempted to kill Papyrus. No I didn’t kill him, but I came close. Papyrus was smart and got the cops on him before I could lay hands on him.”

“There are people like that, unfortunately.”

“Yeah you seem alright though.”

“My parents raised me to not care what someone chooses to do with themselves. As long as it’s not hurting anybody.”

“Yup if it’s not hurting anybody, not my problem.”

“Agreed. What about you? You into guys or no?”

“Why?”

“Just asking. You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”

“I personally am straight. You?”

“Same. Just can’t get too close to people.”

“Why not?”

“The one time I tried and got more broken bones then I’d like to admit.”

“Oh I’m sorry.” it was strange I don’t really think I could tell this to him in person but over text it was fine. I had always sucked with words though I always had too many walls to be able to say these things in person but when I was a safe distance away it was all fine. It was why I had taken the written approach to Rob. Because it needed to be said but I couldn’t have done it in person. Damn anxiety

“Not your fault. I’m okay with just having guy friends that I can rely on. Instead of romantic partners that leave once their done with you.”

“Not all guys are like that you know. You’re generalizing males off of one asshole.” Sans countered.

“Yeah I know and I feel bad doing so but you don’t really hear about it anymore and I don’t have any other evidence to base my claim off of.”

“There are plenty of occasions just because you haven’t seen it doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen.”

“Okay fair point. Rob here is telling me to move on but we’ll see.”

“It doesn’t have to end badly. You know what to look for this time. I’m not saying you need to go find a boyfriend right now. I’m just saying that it’s something to think about.”

“Yeah I’ll keep it in mind. Was that all that you needed?”

“Oh Papyrus wanted me to ask you what time you got off work so we could hang out again. Play cards or something.” Rob started laughing beside me

“Tell him I get off at 3 but I’m heading to the library for a bit to see if I can’t find something to read. So I’ll probably be back later then that…. Wait why isn’t he asking me this? He has my number.” There was considerably longer silence from his end this time and Rob was rolling on the floor laughing now

“Oh MAN you caught him! I was waiting for you to figure it out I was a little worried you wouldn’t realize what he was doing. But you figured it out! Good job you’re not completely oblivious!!”

“Whaddya mean?” I was a little puzzled. Sure I had asked him about that but what?

“He wasn’t asking for his brother he was asking for himself. He’s totally hitting on you!” Rob concluded.

“What? No way!” I said blushing a little bit.

“Yeah he totally thinks you’re cute! He definitely was checking you out last night! Wow I’ll give you that he’s super chill about it but you caught on. Wow that’s got to be a record! You never catch these things!” I rolled my eyes not able to stop the heat from rising to my cheekbones

“There is no way he thinks I’m cute! We’ve known each other for a day!” I said Right?

“It only takes a glance to see that someone’s attractive. You guys hanging out last night was probably super confusing for him. Especially if he’s not sure if he has a crush on you or not.”

“I think you’re jumping the gun a little Rob.” I said flatly Now he’s just being crazy.

“No I’m probably not. Crushes can happen really quickly just because you haven’t had that happen to you doesn’t mean he hasn’t.”

“What is he 13?” Rob got it together a little bit sitting against the desk that the lightboard sat on.

“No it’s perfectly normal. I guess it’s a guy thing. You can see someone once and realize you actually really like them especially if you talk to them you said he’s more on the quiet side right?”

“Yeah.”

“Then yeah if you talk to him and don’t say ‘no’ to him hanging out with you. I could be wrong about him having a crush on you but he definitely was hitting on you a little bit there.” My phone buzzed finally and I jumped and Rob started laughing again

“You and your jumpiness.”

“Shut up.” I grumbled looking at my phone Sans had responded with

“No reason. You work at that theater down on 11th right?” I stared at the first sentence for a second

“Well okay then Rob you win.”

“Told you. Did he tell you he had a crush on you?”

“Not exactly…?” I said showing him the text he couldn’t get a hold of himself again for several seconds.

“He’s probably going to come and just watch you do your job for a little while.”

“Yikes dude.” I said going back to my phone and responding to Sans with “Yeah I do why?” less than a minute passed before the buzz went off again. Sending a half collected Rob back into his fit of laughter “It’s not that funny.” I grumbled reading the text

“When you get off work let me know there’s a car of dudes who drives around there who cat-call any girls walking around there at that time.”

“Ummm I have a car?”

“Staff parking is a little ways off right?”

“Yeah?”

“Then I’ll walk with you at least that far. They’ll leave me alone.”

“I can handle myself.”

“Their a little scary. If you ignore them a couple times they get more in person about it.”

“How do you know about this?”

“I’ve seen it happen before.”

“You didn’t try and stop it?”

“I have before. They respect my boundaries and will leave me alone.” I was doubting this a little bit

“Rob? What do you think about this?”

“Never seen anybody like that. I think he wants to hang out with you a little bit.”

“Umm.. Sans, Rob here tells me that their isn’t anyone like that and you're pulling it out of your ass. Want to tell me the real reason?”

“Did he help you figure out that Papyrus isn’t even in the room?”

“No I figured that part out by myself.” I felt my cheeks cool off a little

“Good on you. Well you really don’t seem to mind me and I figured we could hang out. Get to know one another without Papyrus.”

“Ummm…”

“Not what I meant.”

“Okay then what did you mean?”

“I said cards earlier didn’t I?”

“Okay well I’m still hitting the library I haven’t seen this model of light board before and I need to wow my boss so if you want to meet me at three and go with me we can grab food on the way home. Just to clarify this isn’t a date we’re just hanging out cool?”

“Cool. Not dating.”

“Yeah that violates every rule I’ve ever had.”

“Same guy?”

“Yea.”

“Right I’ll be careful not to make it a date. Thanks for this.”

“Your welcome it’s nice to finally meet another introvert.”

“It’s hard to find others because we hide if you let us.”

“Exactly.” I put down the phone “I think one of us is going to make it a date.” I told Rob who had been reading over my shoulder.

“You’re getting to know each other. It’s like a playdate when you were a kid. It’s like a date because you’re getting to know each other but it’s not romantic in any way. It will be romantic if you let it be. He’ll follow your rules I think but if you let it be romantic he’s going to make it romantic. Just don’t overthink it. If he thinks you're going to let it get romantic he’ll clarify. He seems like he’s not just going to kiss you without making sure you're both on the same page. Keep me posted.” I nodded “You think he’s cute don’t you?”

"Uhhh…” I blushed again “I’m not really sure.” He started laughing again

“Well that’s something we can work with. It’s not a solid no.”

“We?”

“Sans can work with a maybe. Also Lexi is taking her police officer test thing soon. She just happens to be planning on getting a job soon. I told her I have you text her.”

“Lexi.. Oh yeah I remember her she moved away to go to school right?”

“Yeah she was just as curious by the monsters as you were. She also knew about the theatre kid pocket here and figured she’d hang around.”

“Cool. I miss her. She was invaluable when I was struggling with Sam.” he nodded.

“Here she told me to get you in contact with her when I saw you.”

Okay let me tell you what the deal with this “Sam” guy is. Sam was my boyfriend 8 years ago. I had a pretty big crush on him for the longest time and he was the same age as Rob had been at that time. They had actually been basically brothers for a really long time and were very close. Anyways Sam liked me back and so we started dating. Yes I know, he was 17 to my 14. That was dumb decision number one. Number two was about 3 months into our relationship he started getting super bratty and I let him for a long time. Third biggest mistake after we had been dating for about a year so I was almost 16 and he was 18 he started going violent when he didn’t get what he wanted. Also he threatened to break up with me if I didn’t do things for him. Luckily I’m sterile otherwise we’d have had much bigger problems. So yeah it falls into the rape category. Nobody knew about what he was doing to me for a long, long time until Rob found out and he immediately stopped being friends with Sam and told a couple of my other close friends why I always showed up to school with black eyes and broken ribs. At the time I wasn’t brave enough to tell Sam that I wasn’t going to put up with how he was treating me and I didn’t realize that he didn’t love me and that he was a piece of shit. So with the help of my friends I dumped him and he ended up in prison for rape and domestic violence. Since then Rob has been very careful about the way he acts around me because he’s afraid he’ll do the same thing not in a romantic way but his worst nightmare was starting to respond violently to being told no. I knew he wasn’t Sam even in the slightest but he wasn’t taking risks. He also was there when I made that rule to myself see it’s not like I wasn’t allowed to have flings with people. But I never really wanted to but when I made that pact to myself I gave myself room to just because I was a stupid teenager. Hadn’t needed to use it though. I also hold a grudge like nobody’s business so I was still stuck in the past. I know a lot of people will say that something like that isn’t ever going away but I really want it to. I really just want to be able to look at someone who likes me and be able to say I’ll try it. But I can’t just one more limitation and I HATED IT. I hated my stupidity and I hated the fact that I let him get away with it for so long. If I ever was to get a boyfriend again they would have to be the most patient guy on the planet I have so many open wounds that just can’t heal on their own. Man I’m a mess. I don’t even know if I need someone to come in and help put me back together. I don’t even know if anyone could. I mean Rob’s been here for 8 years and I’m still the broken reflection I always had been, even before Sam. I really don’t know why I keep pushing on in life like it obviously doesn’t want me here.

_Stop thinking like that. You have it pretty good._

Aside from the fact that your own immune system is trying to kill you. That and the rest of the planet thinks your a piece of shit.

_No it doesn’t._

Yes it does.

_No. It’ll get better you’ll see._

I guess. I sighed

“Rob don’t you have work to be doing?” I said turning back to the light board

“Just memorizing lines. Nothing too special.” he responded standing up and stretching.

“Better get to it.” I said playing with the sliders on the board. He nodded and left. I wasn’t really sure what I was doing so I decided to go on the internet to see if the library even HAD a book on the board that I was looking at. I also decided to text Lexi after I hanged out with Sans knowing that I’d probably have a more collected brain afterwards when I wasn’t having a crippling anxiety attack about how awkward I was going to be. Yay anxiety….  
*******************************

 

Surprisingly the rest of the day passed relatively quickly and I got a text from Sans asking if he could surprise teleport outside the building and wait for me there which I told him I’d be a few minutes but that it was fine. I gathered my stuff and recycled my numerous cans of soda that I had strewn across the desk from the day. I had done some research on the board and the reason I hadn’t ever even SEEN the controls on it was because it was about 15 years old. Rob assured me that about halfway through the show that we were doing we were getting a brand new one and I’d have to start from square one again but that was fine. For this test of my skill or last part of my interview I was going to have to use this old rust bucket which was okay too. Something to put on my resume. I grabbed my backpack and threw it over my shoulders before next to sprinting down the booth staircase. Blowing past Rob who looked at me funny and I slowed down long enough to hug him and for him to say

“Have fun on your date.”

I yelled “It’s not a date!!” as I kept sprinting out of there excited to get new books and to be able to really dig into this light board and how it worked…. Okay I was excited to hang out with Sans too. Not for that reason but…. You know what I’ll shut up. I’m not proving my case very well. I don’t like him I just couldn’t stop thinking about the fact Rob had told me maybe things wouldn’t end so badly with someone new. I slowed by the door and gained my composure running my hands through my hair and catching my breath before pushing out the big ornate doors. I saw the skeleton leaning on the lamp post by the curb in front of the door. He saw me and pushed off the post. He was wearing his hoodie again but I saw that the color shirt had changed from last night and he was wearing jeans instead of shorts. I scanned him over. Now that he wasn’t in the shadow of his brother he looked relatively my size. Now I say relatively because I had the ability to change my height and width to help me interact with the world with minimal problems, just part of my shifting abilities so I just automatically adjusted as necessary and I really didn’t even notice it now. One catch, I couldn’t adjust beyond my own mass. So I couldn’t be tall enough to jump the Eiffel tower or something. I think my record for height was about Rob size so about 6”5’. Which isn’t half bad compared to my usual measly 5”5’. Anyways it was entirely possible that Sans was an inch or two shorter or taller then me. Sans voice snapped me back into reality.

“Hi… uhhh where ya goin?” Wow I’m stupid I had just zoned out and started walking past him and the tip of my nose was touching the lamp post. I took a couple steps back to where he was standing super confused at what I was doing with my life. His hands in his pockets like he wasn’t sure what he was supposed to be doing with them.

“My bad I’m stupid. I stopped paying attention and here we are.” I said a little sheepishly. I know exactly what I had been doing. I had been walking in the general direction of where my car would be in the school parking lot. The parking lots look relatively the same okay? My brain had been mostly dead all day.

“Uhhh okay? You just want to keep walking that way? We don’t have to do this if you got big plans or something.” He said

“No we’re good I just was going off of habit…. Uhhh my car is this way…. Nope it’s actually that way. I lied.” I said at first trying to walk into the pole again and then remembering I was behind the building. This is gonna be awkward...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I'm gonna start using the **** things to mark the passing of a large amount of time or jumping over parts of the story I'm not writing out for sanity purposes.  
> Also I know I do a lot of my stories based off of comics and songs and other medias I hear about from Awesomeraiders (Hence why she's a co-author.) and she doesn't always tell me where she got it or where I can find it. Which I've asked her to keep an eye on that so I can source it when I use it. Until then if you see similarity's between this and something else let me know and I'll be happy to credit it! Okay rant over.  
> One more thing. I really don't mean to be this inconsistent with these and I have a bunch of stuff I promise I haven't been just sleeping the entire time I just haven't had time to sit down and fix some of the things I need to plus school! So yeah I plan on getting one or two more up by this weekend plus I'm working on writing chapter 35 (Told you I'm not slacking.) and its a loooong chapter with lots of things to describe and explain so that's slowing down the whole uploading process. Yeah.  
> Last thing I promise! If you have questions feel free to leave them in the comments and I'll do my best to get to you in a timely manner, the hope here is that it'll take me much less time to respond to a comment about something I spend 24 hours a day 7 days a week thinking about (I might have a little bit of an obsession with this. I'm having too much fun!). So yeah I'm done now I promise sorry that it's so long and if you read through the entire thing... wow thanks you listen to my long-ass rants I appreciate it


	10. I. HATE. ROB.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Friend crushes are weird.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's a nice long sorta fluffy sorta serious chapter and holy crap it took 3 hours to write a 17 page chapter. I was super motivated and excited for this one.

“You good? You don’t usually seem this flustered.” He said used to my energy after a couple months of us meeting at the lamppost every day. Thank God it was friday.

“Yeah just tired.” I said pulling my keys out of my pocket.

“You were up early.” He pointed out.

“So were you.” I retorted.

“I never slept. What are you talking about?” He said I looked at him and I definitely could see it. He had massive shadows under his eyes and the way he walked just was tired and slumped.

“Sleep stupid!” I growled at him. Personally I was a bit of an insomniac simply because of nightmares and my meds. Hence why I took the one that knocks me out. He had next to no reason to not sleep. He had no liver to have fail. He shrugged.

“The nightmares aren’t worth it.” He said indifferently.

“You too?” I said. Okay maybe he did.

“Long story. I guess it’s just a way for my subconcious to deal with the post traumatic stress.” He said this made me perk up a little and take my eyes off the parking lot of identical looking cars to look him over again. He really didn’t have the appearance of someone who had PTSD he actually looked rather confident. I guess those of us who had the event happen when we were young learn to cover it up for the sake of everyone around us.

“You too?” I asked again not really sure what else to say. He eyed me.

“Oh I’m not the only one with that?” He said like he was a little surprised.

“No you’re not. We probably have it for different reasons, but I feel the pain, man.” I said finding my car. He followed me as I walked off towards it.

“So, is there a way you can sum up the event in a couple words because I get if it’s personal. I’m just curious.” He said and I got in drivers seat and thought for a moment.  _How much am I going to tell him?_ I shrugged turning on the car once he got in shotgun.

“I don’t care if you know. It’s been years. It’s the physical scars I don’t like people seeing. My liver failed when I was 6 months old so I was constantly in and out of the hospital as a kid. My brain didn’t understand that, so now here we are. Also my one abusive, rapist boyfriend didn’t help.” He pondered this for a while.

“I see that’s why you’re an introvert too I take it.” He said.

“Not exactly. I was a born quiet person. Though I do have really bad anxiety and paranoia because of it.” He thought some more.

“I’m sorry that happened to you.” He told me after a while.

“Ehhh what can you do? Do you care if I ask you to summarize the cause of your PTSD or is that off limits?”

“I’ll summarize it. It’s not pretty. My dad killed my mom in front of me and then proceeded  
to torture me and rape me threatening that he’d target my brother if I didn’t.” Wow. I was NOT ready for that. At all.

“Wow I’m so sorry.” Was all I could say. He shrugged.

“Thanks but there’s not much you can do. I killed my imprisoner eventually because I was just done. The ghosts will find peace eventually.”

“You did what you had to. How long has it been?”

He paused. “Let’s see I was 6 when it started… He kept me for 12 years… I was 18 when we decided it was time to be free.” he said finishing his calculations.

“You’re how old now?” I pressed seeing how much he was willing to tell me.

“27.” He said pausing to think about that

“It’s been 9 years and the nightmares still are as powerful as they would’ve been on day  
one?”

“You’ve been dealing with them your whole life it sounds like.” He replied. I backed out of the parking  
lot.

“Yeah I guess and 15 years is a long time. I’m sorry.” I said. He shrugged again.

“What can ya do?” He said.

“There are people who could try and help you.” I pointed out “It’s how I’ve lived this long.”

“No doctors. Not after him.” He said before I had even said the last bit.

“Oh, okay sorry.” I said not realizing that might not be something he was comfortable with.  
He relaxed back down.

“No sorry that was me. You had no way of knowing.”

“It’s alright. Ummm hey if you need someone to talk to. You can come to me. I’ll listen.” I  
offered it sounded like he hadn’t really told anybody about this.

“Thanks. You too.” He said before pausing “Can I ask you something?” He said after I  
cursed and low-key flipping off this guy in a black SUV for almost killing us.

“Yeah what’s up?” I said closing my hand in a fist under the wheel grabbing and took the  
wheel again. Checking again to see if I could turn onto the mostly empty street. Sans huffed in laughter as he saw my gesture. The fact he could see me flipping off some dude from my lap worried me as to where his eyes were wandering.

“Why were you so upfront and honest with me? Your offering me a lot of trust for someone  
you haven’t known for more than 3 months. Especially since you seem to have a pretty big fear of people. Why is that?” I thought about this for a long time. He had a point. A very valid point at that. I pondered this and when I found a space in the library parking lot. (We got into the habit of going to the library on Fridays before grabbing dinner.) I paused for a second. Turning off the car before answering.

“I’m not really sure. I guess your brother helped a little bit but it’s like I’ve known you for a lot longer. Like something happened and we reset our lives and I’m meeting you again after years and years. I just don’t realize it.” He flinched.

“I don’t think that’s what happened. You just described an incomplete reset. The world  
resets but memories of people are left and minor things are changed like personality or physical appearance. (Hence why we have those deja vu moments. Memories of a previous timeline.) Not many people can remember these resets.”

“I don’t know man I just feel like we’ve been friends a lot longer.” He shrugged “Well why  
did you tell me you darkest secrets?” He paused as if formulating his answer.

“I guess I felt like someone else needed to know and that I couldn’t keep suffering on my  
own.” He said after a moment getting out of the car. I followed.

“Not even your brother knows?” I asked. He shook his head

“I gave up every scrap of innocence I had to protect him. He doesn’t need to know about  
that sacrifice.”

“Well thanks for that trust then. I should be just a second if you want to stay here.” I said.

“I’ll come with you I need to do something with my life. Dust storm’s coming early this year I see.” He said signalling to the slightly golden atmosphere.

“No kidding. My god it’s the second week of September. World, what the heck! Let’s move it along so we can get home and be warm before it hits.” I said a little annoyed.

“Not going to happen we have 5 minutes tops.” he said crushing my dreams.

“Goddamn.”

“It’s fine I’ll magic the dust out of our eyes.” He said nudging me along.

“Romantic.” I teased him and he blushed blue a little.

“That’s not what I meant it to be.” He said. I laughed.

“You took it too seriously, silly!” I purred walking through the automatic doors. We walked  
around the shelves of books and Sans picked out a couple more kid based books for Papyrus’ bedtime stories.

“You judging?” He asked while I watched him debate with himself which one of two he had  
picked Papyrus would like best.

“No. Just think it’s funny.” I said smiling a little he sighed and made a choice. “Family’s very  
important to you isn’t it?” I asked. He nodded.

“My family’s more important than just about anything else. It’s relatively small right now.

Just consisting of Papyrus and his boyfriend. Along with two other friends you haven’t met yet.” I nodded.

“I can see why that’d be important. Who’s Papyrus’ boyfriend? Or do I need to have him  
tell me that himself?”

“If you ask him, he’ll tell you before you finish his sentence. He’s currently dating Mettaton.”

“Whoa like the movie star?” I asked a little wowed.

“Yeah that’s what I thought to when Papyrus came out to me. I didn’t expect it to last very  
long but Mettaton is super patient with his silliness. Even though he tells me Papyrus is actually much smarter than he lets on. I don’t know if he just gets it together around him or what but apparently he doesn’t wear that plate armour around him and wears clothes more similar to my fashion sense.”

“Huh weird. You’re okay with him being in a relationship with your brother?” I asked having  
found my lightboard book (Not in the picture book section). And was now just browsing for off time reading

“As long as he treats him right I don’t care who he’s dating. It’s not my drama.” Sans said  
laughing at me as I struggled to decide if I wanted a book about dragon knights or if I wanted a book more similar to Lord of the Rings. I playfully shoved him with my hip sending him stumbling into some chairs still giggling a little bit and made my choice. I decided to go with the Dragon Knight one simply because it was longer and I mean DRAGON KNIGHTS. SO COOL!! I’d have to be crazy to not pick it.

“Fair enough. Do you want to get one for yourself just for your spare time?” I asked.

“A boyfriend or a book?” He asked with this stupid looking derp face on because he could  
rearrange his face like that.

“A boyfriend. I don’t care that you’re straight, get one. No stupid. A book.”  
His uncrossed his eyes and said, “I know. I’m just screwing around with ya. Umm sure I guess it’s something to do during the long nights of not sleeping.” He said taking the one I offered him which happened to be the Lord of the Rings type book. “How nerdy is this going to be?” He asked flipping it open to the first page.

“Probably dragons and dark forests and giant spiders and a group of adventures going to  
save the world.” I responded judging by other things I had read of relatively the same nature

“Interesting. We’ll have to try it out.”

“Good. Get addicted to the nerd. Ready to blow this joint?” I asked and he gave me the  
strangest look.

“Blow this joint?”

“It’s just something my mom used to say. It means the the heck outa here.” I said and he  
flinched.

“You knew your mom?” He asked

“Uhhhh yeah. She raised me?” I said a little confused.

“I thought my dad killed her?” He said.

“Okay I think we’re talking about two different people. The person I’m talking about is my  
adoptive mother. I just call her mom because that’s what she is to me since I never met my mom. I was actually hoping that I’d meet my biological parents when I was here or at least be pointed in the right direction. I have no idea who you’re talking about.” I said still slightly confused.

“Oh sorry.” He seemed dodgy. We started walking towards the check out things (I really forgot what they were called.) I decided to let him weasel out of explaining what he meant by “mom”. I wanted to get a clue in the right direction but something told me that if Sans knew something it was not going to be what I wanted to hear.

“Okay this is super off topic but skeletons have the ability to reproduce? They can get their partner pregnant?” I asked as we walked out to the car.

“Ummm… Yeah? Is this news?” He said like he was surprised that this of all things was a question. Immediately when we stepped outside we were hit in the eyes with a bucket full of dust. This didn’t seem to bother Sans much thanks to the fact he had holes in his face in place of eyes. I, on the other hand, was a lot more annoyed by it. “Hold on. Sit still for a second.” His left eye glowed blue and yellow and a small wall of the same color apparated in front of us it wasn’t super tall. Tall enough to keep dust out of our faces but not so it was super noticable. The atmosphere was a golden brown color and the wind pulled my hair back into a forced ponytail and I was really freaking hating it but at least I could blink the dust out my eyes and have it be fine.

“I mean not the whole reproductive system thing I know how that works but you’re  
skeletons! That shouldn’t work. You’re bones. Meaning no flesh. How does that part work?” I said still a little confused.

“Oh yeah you wouldn’t know would you? Okay anatomy lesson. We skeletons (or liches  
depending on who you ask) need air to breathe just like you do (but you can’t strangle us so don’t get any ideas). Also skeletons, like most living things, have the instinctual need to reproduce and pass on our genetics. Our reproductive system works relatively the same as a humans’ would, at least on the male end. Usually our magic helps with the fact we are skeletons and therefore not fleshy beings. I’ll let you fill in the blanks from there on that. On the female side, they don’t do the whole “Bleed for a week thing” because again, don’t have flesh. For the pregnancy time it’s not quite as “I need this weird combination of food or imma kill someone.” more of “I want to die in a hole.” I’ll give you, humans do it too but the time it takes for one of us little things is a lot shorter than yours and pregnant females get to have their entire skeletal structure redone up twice in a four month period and we really didn’t have pain killers before the human world opened to us. Thanks to some of the things my dad did to me I have parts of human souls in me so if I cut myself I bleed, it’s the souls trying to escape, they really don’t want to be there and I don’t want them. But they were forced to “Bond” with my soul. So they're a part of me now which makes it so if I lose enough “blood,” I’ll die of blood loss just like a human would. We also have brain in these thick skulls of ours so we can feel emotions like love and hate and joy and grief and do things a normal human could. Oh and we can move our mouths if we want to I just don’t usually because tongues tend to be more of a recessive trait among us and me just saying “Oh hi look! Magical blue tongue!!” might get me hunted down but hey I’ll take being a little different. Not for my life but low key. Blue tongue. That really wasn’t an anatomy lesson so much as a super confusing explanation but there ya go. Questions? Comments? Concerns?” I took a deep breath to stop myself from laughing just cuz I am a little immature like this.

“So are skeleton males rainbow colored? Like if you’re blue then would Papyrus be a  
different color since it’s fueled by magic? Or are you all blue? What’s the deal with that?” He rolled his eyes big time and we found my car. We got in and despite ourselves had a couple seconds that we were laughing just a little bit.

“Okay moment of being 13 over. Okay. We good? It’s not that funny. Oh my god I need to stop I’m too adult for this.” It really wasn’t that funny it was for me just laughing because I really don’t have my crap together. But at least we both didn’t have our crap together, together right? “Okay so we all have an individual color of magic which most monster species show our talent starting at about 6 months old. Anyways skeletons at least have individual colors for some reason. So I’m blue and Papyrus is red for example. So yeah I guess we’d be rainbow colored.” He said after a minute getting a hold of himself.

“Nice.” I said, struggling to catch my breath.

“I guess that’s why you don’t really see any half skeletons running around.” He added.

“What about you?”

“Both my parents were skeletons. I have human souls inside me which makes me half  
human which makes me sterile and gives me human attributes.”

“Wait you're sterile because you're half human?” I was a little surprised by this. It was a  
logical explanation as to why I was sterile. My parents had always said it must’ve been something to do with liver. That had never made sense but I guess this would.

“Mixes are sterile. I’m sure you know you are, at least.” He said examining his talons like  
it’d be awkward if he was glancing anywhere in my direction, to his credit. He did just tell me he knew I was incapable of reproducing and I had never come out and said it before now.

“I guess it makes sense if you cross a zebra and a donkey the offspring will be shorter  
lived and sterile. Hi. That sounds like me.” I pointed out

“I don’t see you being particularly short lived. You’re tougher than that.”

“Thanks but it might not be the planet that gets me in the end, more of myself.” I turned on the car. I saw his eyes immediately go to my wrists and when he didn’t see any scars he looked at my slightly distracted green eyes.

“You’ve been strong for a long, long time haven’t you?” he said quietly.

“This world really does not want me to be here.” I said turning out of the parking lot to go  
grab food. He paused like he wasn’t sure how he was going to respond.

“Maybe it doesn’t, but there are people in it who want you to be here with us. I’m your friend and I want you to stay with us and I know that this place wouldn’t be the same without you.” He said pausing in between sentences. “Please don’t damage yourself anymore. It’s not worth it. It’ll take time but wounds can be healed. Scars can be forgiven. I know this sounds super dumb but it’s not all bad.”  


I breathed heavily before responding “It’s hard when your own mind wants you to kill yourself, when all you want to do is throw yourself off a bridge, rip out your own gut because the scars there are something that the world will always judge you for. That your OWN brain will hate you for simply because you are not like everyone else. Sure your friends can try to understand and yeah the psychologists can make it so you don’t actually listen to this voice telling you to slit your wrists, but who can really get to that voice and tell it to go fuck off? The voice loves watching me writhe in pain on the inside when no one, not even Rob knows that deep down behind my laugh at his stupid jokes I really am not as happy and excited as I look. I really don’t have that sucky of a life. Things actually look really good for me right now but my own brain is making it impossible to be happy and I hate it.”  
Man I was getting emotional and I really shouldn't be but he was really the first person I had ever told this to. I growled to myself and parked in the parking lot of Grillby’s trying to regain a little composure. I stumbled out of the car _Goddamnit this is why you can’t tell people these things._ Damn that little voice in my head. Making me feel like crap for doing even the simplest of things. Sans walked up in front of me stopping me in my tracks. His eyes glowed a bright violet.

“Hey, hey it’s okay. It’s going to be okay. Come here.” He growled and hugged me. At first I was a little startled by it, but hugged him back and he didn’t let go until I struggled against him. Which took more than five minutes. Oddly after a minute I started to feel a little better. Less choked by something that I had no control over. Less like the darkness was going to take control. Maybe it was like when you punched something. Except it also made me happy just a little bit. The happiness was hiding in the corner but it was there. I realized it had been there for a while now. Any time I was with him it was there. Yeah Rob temporarily could make me feel like this as long as he was there but the second he wasn’t, it was gone again. This was a little bit more subtle but much more overpowering once I was aware of it. Very faint memories of what that felt like stirred from their graves. They sent my heartbeat into overdrive and it scared me for a second. My tail swished to hide the fact the fur on it was standing on end the tingling that shot through it, it wasn’t at all used to. _Ugh what is this? No, no I don’t like this. Go die again. I don’t need this! I can handle this on my own! I don’t need anyone! I struggled against him and he let go. His eyes had softened and my heart skipped a beat NO. STOP IT._ “You’ll be okay I promise.” I liked the way he said these things. _He’s lying what are you doing? Get a grip!_ I ignored the tiny voice and hugged him again. He paused for a second and hugged back. My brain absolutely HATED this but I ignored it for a long time. Eventually it threatened to strangle me if I kept ignoring it so I was forced to let go again even though he looked like he would be happy if we stayed like that for an hour “So how many times did you swap control?” He teased after he was sure I wasn’t going to attack him again.

“Three? Four?” I said not really sure.

“I got off easy then?” He purred turning away. I hadn’t realized his eye was glowing again and a glowing bluish bubble surrounded us it wasn’t super big just a couple inches around us protecting against dust I assumed.

“Yeah I guess.” I looked at the bubble around us “Is this helpful in combat?” His eye dimmed back to purple and the bubble faded with it. Yup it was definitely windy and dusty.

“Oh yeah. This probably annoys the crap out of you. Here.” A much smaller more personal bubble appeared around me.

“Hashtag if you are in the bubble, I will kick you.” He smiled and put his hand on my shoulder. “You’re asking for it aren’t you?” He didn’t say anything but I shoved his shin with my foot. Not really a kick but I’ll count it. He laughed and got out of the bubble. “Wait no come back! You’re all warm and cuddly.” I purred snuggling into his side. I wasn’t lying. He was warm and cuddly, but I also wanted his attention. I can socialize guys! I’m doing it right? Right?

“Am I just you're walking teddy bear?” He asked laughing a little putting an arm over my shoulder as I cozied up to his ribs. We walked up to the building, which was made mostly of wood which was a wee bit strange since it was run by a man who was FIRE. But whatever. Not my show, not my problem.

“No Matt takes that spot.” I purred “I’m just cold.”

“Soon you won’t be. Who’s Matt if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Matt’s an old friend from high school and the only reason he started being my friend in the first place was because he knew if you were having a bad day and would hug you if you were. Or if you weren’t.”

“Oh I’m not the special?” I smiled

“No you have other uses to me.”

“Ahhh. That helps how?” He said moving his arm so he could open the door letting me go in first. I nodded in appreciation and he followed behind me nudging me in as the heat hit me. It wasn’t too hot it was actually really comfortable. Sure this was a regular place for us to chill we had a Friday schedule but I had always been focused on my phone or my friend and never really noticed these things.

“Ohhh a fire pit!” I squeaked excited running over to the couch by the barred off logs.

“Are you EVER warm enough?” He purred peace signing the living flame “Hey Grillby.” Oh that’s why the name is… Ohhhhh haha I get it. Grillby nodded back and watched us and he turned a slightly pink color. Pushing his glasses up his nose. He wore pretty typical bartender attire which was strange because his arms and legs and head was actual fire. I’m not saying it was bad. It was actually freaking AWESOME; all of my nerdy fantasies about getting a fire elemental to live a normal life was standing right there. We were sitting in a wooden building and he was cleaning a glass with a rag and wearing clothes and there wasn’t even a burn mark anywhere. I needed to know what his secret was, but right now I was busy laying in front of the fire pit my head half on the couch cushions scrolling through my phone. My legs half up the base of the other couch. Sans caught up slightly winded and sat slightly leaning on my side. “But seriously though are you ever warm enough.”

“Well I’m never dying of hypothermia. But if there’s a better stronger heat source, I’m never going to say no unless I’m overheating which is really hard to do, but has happened. So yes there is a limit, but a desert in September isn’t it.” I said closing my eyes. Sans sighed and closed his eyes a little too. Everyone else in the building seemed to not notice this. Grillby however told us to sit and eat something if we were going to but his fire was colored a rosy pink. “Why does he change colors?” I asked Sans quietly Grillby momentarily turned green and glanced at me. I gave him a soft smile.

“Because he has no eyes or face in general to express emotion and he really doesn’t like talking he changes his fire color instead.” Sans explained doing nothing to hide his voice since Grillby was already onto my little scheme. A tiny rabbit looking thing whose body was just a half oval half cube shape kept looking at Sans and me. It looked a little jealous. Sans didn’t seem to notice it climbing up onto on of the taller chairs and I struggled up opposite him. In one corner there was a wide variety of dog people.

One seemed to be playing a card game against itself. Another table had a big, big dog in full plate armour that had smaller faces on it. It wasn’t like Papyrus’ armor because this was a full set compared to basically just a shirt and pants of sorts. It also looked like that armour would protect him extremely well in a combat situation there was another dog that was dressed in what looked a little like a bandit having a black patch of fur around his eyes and a tank top for a shirt. This one watched me and Sans very carefully when we were moving, squinting at us when we were settled into the chairs like he couldn’t see us suddenly. Two more were hooded figures with giant axes. The only way I could tell they were related to the rest was because of the snow white coats that all of the members of this strange family of dogs had. The last one made me flinch despite myself. It was horribly deformed and it was half melted and it had one giant hole in it’s face that I guess was supposed to be a mouth? It had tentacle like legs and the shadows of them looked like smiling happy dogs. What the hell IS that? Sans put a hand on my face and forcibly turned my face away from this half melted puddle of dog.

“What in the world?” I asked him.

“That’s called an amalgamate they were accidently created by our current Royal scientist, Alyphs. She was trying to bring them back to life with determination. There are as many as 50 monsters that are part of that one creature. Alphys is trying her best to put them all back into individual bodies but she doesn’t have the confidence or the technology to do it.”

“Oh my God.”

“Yeah. There are about 6 of these fusions total. Not including myself and my dad.”

“You’re an amalgamate? You don’t look melted at all.”

“Because my dad knew how to put determination into a body. Alphys had very incomplete research when she was told to bring the dead back. I tried to help as much as I could but…” He looked sadly at the animal. I reached across the table and held his face in my hand forcing him to look at me.

“I know you did the best that you could but it’s not your fault Gaster didn’t tell you how he was doing these things to you I bet. He just did them. There was no way you could’ve known how to fix them.” I growled and he looked down.

“I guess.” He said not looking at me

“Sans no one blames you. It probably would’ve been worse if you hadn’t used what little you knew to help as much as was in your ability.”

“I know I just… I feel so bad that I couldn’t help these people. I’ve thought about going and searching the place that my dad experimented on me for so long but anytime I try I can’t go anywhere nearer than Alphys’ lab.” He looked really upset. I wasn’t 100% sure what to do to help him.

“Then it’s not time yet. They can wait however much longer it takes before you’re ready. They’re not in pain and they’re living happily right now. It doesn’t have to be fixed just yet. It’ll be okay. I promise.” He finally made eye contact with me

“Yeah I guess they can wait for a little longer.” He said.

“The wounds he left on you are a lot deeper than even you realize. It takes time to heal. When you’re ready you can worry about them. But worry about yourself first. You’re still hurting.” He didn’t say anything just stared into the depths of my soul almost his big violet eyes shaking a little. Grillby walked over and slammed his fiery hands on the wooden table.

“So did you two want to order food or are you just going to sit there until you start making out?” I jumped back away from Sans realizing we had been getting really close and I wasn’t quite sure what had been happening but my heart ached that whatever had been happening hadn’t been allowed to happen. I looked around the rest of the place. There was a monster that was mostly mouth and had hundreds of sharp pointed teeth and he was seated in the booth just behind the rabbit glob thing, who was glaring at me now. Over in the corner there was a cow looking guy that was sitting at the bar next to a jukebox. On two more bar chairs there was a fish guy and a duck guy who both looked very drunk and half asleep leaning on the bar. There wasn’t really anyone else I noticed so I was forced to look back at Sans. I couldn’t quite place his expression. He suddenly cleared his expression grinning sheepishly. Rubbing the back of his neck with a hand.

“That wasn’t what it looked like Grillby you were just standing at a weird angle and it looked like we were about to make out but I just was telling her about how um.. Hot you were. I was hoping I wouldn’t have to tell you but yeah…” It worked I guess? Grillby gave him the most sarcastic shade of purple and blue that reminded me of an eye roll.

“Yeah, yeah, I’ve never seen you look at someone with such passion when telling a pun. What do you guys want or are you two just causing me trouble for me?” He said.

“French fries?” Sans said eyeing me and when I nodded enthusiastically continued with “Two orders of fries please.” Grillby noted it looked at us shrugged and walked off. “Sorry I don’t know what that was. Sorry.”

I shrugged putting my hands in my pockets. “It’s fine I did nothing to stop you. It was Grillby who intervened.” I said shyly.

“Yeah I just don’t want one of us to do something we’ll regret.” He said blushing a little.

“Agreed. Probably why I should start to remember to say ‘no’ to you.” I said looking at my phone on the table.

“Yeah if I start acting super dumb tell me and I’ll pull it together.” He said glancing at the tiny rabbit who looked like it was about to cut somebody it was so mad. Grillby came back out with the fries.

“Oh good you two lovebirds got it together.” He grumbled Sans slowly looked up at him.

“Lovebirds?” He asked equally as slowly, popping a fry in his mouth. Grillby looked a little unsettled by this.

“I mean… Aren’t you guys dating?” I snorted around a fry, putting my face down on the table to hide my expression. Sans and I were laughing entirely too hard, “What?”

“No. This one here has a rule against that. Just because we’re two besties who happen to be opposite genders doesn’t automatically mean we’re dating.” Sans said fist bumping a still face down on the table me. _That’s 6._ Yes I know this is something me and Rob do but I asked him if me and Sans could continue the tradition and he had told me to have fun with it while it lasted because we were going to be dating before long even if we didn’t consider it dating yet. So here we were. I felt a little bad that I had been taking so much time away from Rob to be with Sans, but he promised me it was okay and that I should hang with a friend who thought I was low-key super cute and made time to be with me. Not someone like him, who I saw at work but hadn’t really been close friends with for years. I still felt bad but figured that if he really wanted me to spend a day with him he would just say so. Lexi and I had also been getting in contact lately and she was exactly how I remembered her. Energetic and outgoing and she shipped Rans. So, so hard. She even had come up with the name Rans and I gotta say I low-key think that sounds super cool.

I had told Rob about our ship and he responded with, “I ship it. I ship it hard.”

“Shut it.”

“You like him!!” He teased (This had been weeks ago mind you).

“No, no I don’t!” I had retorted annoyed.

“I don’t know man when you spending so much time with him…”

“I have a new friend and we’re pretty similar. Of course I’m spending time with him.”

“I don’t remember you ever spending this much time with me.”

“It’s hard to explain…”

“For you yes, but it’s really simple actually. You want him to be your boyfriend.” I had blown this off at the time. But slowly between the three of them I started to figure out that maybe Sam could go dig himself a grave and die in it. Sans seemed like he couldn’t agree more. Doing everything he could to make spare time for me. Which at first I resisted so he stopped telling me these things, but Papyrus would usually give him away. Also we both knew that the other was a bit of an insomniac even before he told me he didn’t sleep at all. So we frequently chilled at his apartment on our phones (On separate couches…... You thought. ;P.) until we fell asleep (Or didn’t if you were Sans) and there was more than one occasion I got up and caught him just kind of watching me sleep. It was a little weird but I’m guilty of it too so eh… IT’S FINE… It’s very intriguing to watch someone wake up. At first you don’t really realize that the person was waking up. It was once they started moving or they said something you realized that you’re “glances” was actually staring at them for an hour. Maybe that’s just me but Sans seemed to do it too. Rob told me this could be taken in a creepy way or a good sign at this point depending on how I wanted this to turn out. I wasn’t sure how to respond to that. I’m a emotional wreck as I’m sure you have found out by now. It was super confusing trying to sort out what I was doing with these random, powerful emotions, especially when I had zero clue what to do with them or how best to go about it.

So there me and Sans were not really eating anything real while we were here  
because we’re lazy pigs and consuming fries and talking for the remainder of the afternoon. We talked about what we were going to be doing over the weekend. Luckily it seemed like a whole lot of nothing and he also told me that he’d like it if I chilled with the bro’s for the weekend. He had gotten a lot better at not using Papyrus as an excuse to get the things he wanted. I got in the habit of saying yes to these things. It was like breaking a bad habit. He didn’t throw Papyrus under the bus, and I was much more likely to say yes so he got what he wanted. Important skills here guys. IF YOU WANT SOMETHING JUST ASK FOR IT. PLEASE. I KNOW POSSIBLY BEING REJECTED IS SCARY BUT STALKING THE CRAP OUT OF SOMEONE Is. NOT. Attractive!! AT ALL. This has been a PSA from Riley.

At about 7:00 Grillby told us to go home so he could go home and the people from the bar all cleared out.

The rabbit thing attempted to talk to Sans but couldn’t get up the guts to say anything more than, “H-hiya Sansy.” Again she might have had a chance if she asked for what she wanted. But as it was I had to try not to laugh as this attempt at flirting went right over Sans’ head.

He responded with a simple, flat, “Hey.” The little creature looked a little crushed but also shot me a triumphant glance as she got his attention. I thought about rubbing his affection of me in her face but decided I wasn’t that much of a jerk and I wasn’t going to go and smash this kid’s crush on the skeleton like that. Not yet at least. “Come on Riley let’s go.” He said and the rabbit gave me a death glare. I shrugged and followed my friend out into the dark evening. The dust storm had passed and I yawned as we walked to the car. “Not staying up till 11 tonight?” He inquired glancing back at me as I stumbled to keep up.

“Nope I’m going to text Rob for a minute and sleep. Why?”

“Just seeing how long you plan to stay up for.”

“What?”

“I don’t think it’s late enough for Papyrus to be asleep yet.” He said getting into the car.

“Fair. I’ll wait till he goes THEN I’m going to sleep. I’m tired.” I said turning on the car and pulling out of the parking lot.

“I’ll give you that. So bets on who’s going to wake up with a set of eyes on them for this week?” He said grabbing the pen and paper I had on my dashboard. The entire watch you wake up thing was happening enough often enough we placed BETS on it. Not real money of course but usually the winner of the bet got to pick something the other one had to steal for the week or a challenge they had to do. For example, Sans’ favorite was my hoodie because he knew it made me laugh every time I was looking for it before I realized he had it. My favorite was his pink fuzzy slippers he kept around but didn’t usually wear. We usually would go ice skating down the wooden floored hall on Sunday mornings with them since they were all slippery. It was actually really fun trying to keep the laughter down because one of us had crashed into a wall since there would still be people sleeping at 4:30 in the morning on Sundays.

“Me.” I said flatly turning on to the mostly quiet highway to go home.

“Aww come on! You caught me last week!” He grumbled but marked down my vote. “But if we’re being real right now you’re going to sleep relatively early so you're probably going to be up at the crack of dawn so I think I’m going to be the one who has to chase you off.”

“You wish. This time I’m going for your hoodie since you're always after mine.” He grumbled but those were the rules.

“Okay then if you’re attacking the hoodie I have to go for something drastic…. You have to go a full week without touching a sweater or jacket of any kind.”

“Aww but I’ll freeze!” I exclaimed. That wasn’t the worst of things he had had me go for a week without. There was the one time he thought it’d be hilarious if he told me to go without caffeine for a week. The first three days were the scariest days of his life. But after that I was just super tired all the time. It was still pretty funny though looking back on it. I chased him around that apartment more than a few times that week. Papyrus’ only comment was that he hadn’t seen Sans run that fast in a long, long time.

“The rules are the rules.” He said writing down the “prizes” “Okay you’re on!”

“Come at me!” I growled playfully. “Just not right this second since I’m driving.” I said then I remembered something. “Question.”

“Shoot.”

“Is that force field thing you used earlier any use in a combat scenario?”

“No it’s not strong enough to actually prevent anything from going through it just strong enough to keep the natural elements out, wind, fire, rain, dust, fog. Things like that.”

“I see.”

“Yeah. Hey question for you.”

“What’s up?” I said signalling at the stop light to turn into the street with the apartment.

“I know you’ve talked about getting tattoos before but are you actually planning on getting one?” He said and I had to pause and think for a minute on this one. Yes I had always wanted one and when I had turned 18 I had chosen a couple pictures but my mom had told me to wait until I moved out before I actually did. It did give me some time to think about it. She personally was against me getting one. Sans was a little confused by it not really sure why you would get repeatedly poked by needles to get a picture forever. I had always said that I wanted a couple to cover up the needle scars on my arms so no one could look at me and see that something was wrong. But what I wasn’t sure. I guess now that I knew what had happened to my birth parents I could a tattoo representing them I would have to prod the heck out of Sans to see what I wanted to remember them for. I think he had said something about my dad becoming a werewolf during his final moments and that had been something I had wanted for a tattoo anyways. Hmm that’s one down.

“If one of my friends died I’d get one. I might get a couple for my parents. Those are the only ones I can tell you for sure I’ll get. I might get some just because I want them. No promises on those though.” I said finally, parking in my space.

“I guess I could see you doing something for someone who died. But you never knew your parents?”

“Yeah I didn’t but they’re still my parents. I want to have them be part of my life somehow. There’s not really much I can do so I guess a tattoo will have to do.”

“If I’m going to take one guess you’re going to get a werewolf for your dad.”

“My god am I really that see-through?” I purred parking and getting out.

“I just know you.” He responded clicking the button to summon the elevator “So we gonna be evil?” He said as it arrived.

“HAHA YES!!” I said excitedly and he tilted his head momentarily in acknowledgement. We got in the elevator and he just ran his talons over all the buttons. It made me laugh even though we had to stop six times before we could get to our apartment. The only reason we were able to get away with this is because on friday nights at this time usually people weren’t using the elevator occasionally we’d get some death stares from people but for the most part we were fine. Six stops later we stumbled out of the elevator mildly dizzy. I shook my head to clear it. It didn’t help at all. It actually made it worse, but it’s fine. Sans took the opportunity to playfully shove me into a wall laughing and running to the door struggling against the handle as I came at him smashing both of us into the apartment landing in some laughing pile of hoodie. Papyrus had been standing at the end of the entryway waiting for us to come home but jumped back as we crashed in. He looked at us funny.

“WHAT ARE YOU TWO DOING?” He asked us and Sans attempted to get up but I put more weight on his ribs so he flopped to the floor defeated.

“We’re just being dumb Pap don’t worry about it. Riley get up!” He growled playfully and shoved me off him. The skelebro’s apartment was set up relatively the same as mine except their TV wasn’t as large as mine was another room that was Papyrus’. The reason they had an extra room was because they were at the end of the hall and with the way the apartments were set up they had a little extra room so there was two bedrooms. I just happened to be across the hall from them so I was at the end of the hall but that side didn’t have the same space inequality. I don’t know man! I don’t do buildings. I just drill two pieces of wood together from time to time. I had been rolled onto my back and Sans got up and dragged me into the kitchen by a hand.

“Hold up! I’m gonna get up. Just take me another six inches to the carpeted area.” He rolled his eyes.

“You? Get up? Let’s be real here for a second.” He heaved me up onto the carpet. Dropping my hand and I flipped onto all fours pushing myself onto my hind legs again. Smirking in Sans’ direction he widened his eyes and flopped onto his couch. By his couch I mean what he was sleeping on. The first time I had stayed over at his place (Still not like that) we couldn’t come to a consensus on who was sleeping on the couch and who was sleeping in his room. (He had told me he would sleep on the couch but I wouldn’t have any of it.) So we both crashed on separate couches. That had been the agreement. Papyrus told us to stop fighting so he could sleep so that was what we had agreed on. During the day it was everybody’s couch but once we came back from whatever shenanigans we had been up to during the day (Why do you keep thinking that you pervs!) they became the respective person’s couches. We both had a blanket or two that was moved to the top of the couch during the day so they were out of they way. I flopped onto my couch laying on it belly down and plugged my phone into the cord I kept nearby 36% not bad.  
I texted Rob. “So what does it feel like to have a crush on someone again?” I put the phone on the couch arm and rolled onto my back but quickly switched back when I felt the phone buzz.

“Is someone’s phone ringing? ‘Cuz I totally called it!!” I sighed rolling my eyes. Sans glanced at me.

“What happened?” He asked lazily.

“Rob is just doing the, “I called it” joke and it’s even less funny coming from him then it is coming from you.” Sans huffed a little bit and rolled his eyes.

“Rob tries to be me but he couldn’t possibly be this.. SANSanstional.” He purred and I couldn’t stop myself from laughing.

“That’s so bad. So so bad” I said getting control.

“You’re still laughing.” He said flatly.

“I know I know.” I went back to my phone “Just answer the question and I’ll give you 10 minutes to kinkshame me in a minute.” I responded to Rob it buzzed again.

“Fair trade. well it’s pretty low-key but once you realize it’s there it’s pretty overpowering like you're drowning almost.”

“Okay I’ve felt like that for a majority of the afternoon.”

“You have a crush on a skeleton! HA.” I rolled my eyes.

“You sir have 15 minutes to rub it in as much as you want.” I set a timer on my phone… For your sake I’ll spare you of what the next 15 minutes of texts were. Eventually the timer went off and I said something to him finally, “Okay you’re done. Leave me alone about it. How long do you think until one of us says something about it?”

“That was a little fun I gotta admit. Umm probably sometime this weekend if I know you. You’ll probably get frustrated with not knowing what you’re doing with these emotions and say something because I sure as hell am out. I’ve done what I can do. You probably want to text Lex the news too. She’ll be excited.” I sighed but had to agree so I did and I could almost hear her laughing.

“So Rans is a thing now?” Was the response.

“Not yet, but soon.” I promised glancing at Sans who had been watching me steadily turn a scarlet color with Rob calling me on my crap. My face immediately turned a darker shade of red and his turned a blue color and we both looked back at our phone I texted Rob. “Great job you have made it so I look like a fricking tomato.”

“How is that MY fault? You’re the one who’s into a skeleton.”

“I gave you 15 minutes you’re DONE.” I responded a little annoyed.

“I’m just stating the facts.”

“Damnit. You’ right.” I just got an upside down happy face emoji in response. I sighed and rolled my eyes. Papyrus came in still wearing his armour and told Sans he wanted the smaller skeleton to read him his new bedtime story. Sans excused himself to do so. Coming back 15 minutes later holding his hoodie rather than wearing it he tossed it at me and I caught it

“Go to sleep. Papyrus is down and it sounds like you need it.” He said rubbing an eye. I sighed and put up the phone

“Why’d you throw a sweater at me?”

“You can have it for tonight. It’s a little warm for me.” He said laying on the couch and throwing the blanket over himself

“You’re a skeleton you don’t feel heat or cold, and if you’re so hot then what’s with the blanket? Wait a second….” He was laughing plugging his phone in “You just wanted me to call you hot didn’t you?” I said catching on to his little scheme.

“Yeah. Yeah I did.” He said. “Though I don’t care if you steal my hoodie for a while. You’ll probably win it off me anyways if I was to guess.” He said sinking into the blanket. Putting his arms behind his head and closed his eyes. I sighed rolling my own and taking off my old hoodie and setting it aside and throwing my new fluffy one over my shoulders and I instantly fell in love with it. It was warm and soft especially in the sleeves and hood which was covered in a soft coat of gray fur. It also had Sans’ very distinct scent along with a much, much, much fainter one that smelled female (I had shifted my nose into a dogs for this inspection once I caught wiff of a stranger's scent.) This also had particular strong points in the same places as Sans’ did where the joints jutted out. Hinting that this female was also a skeleton.

“Hey Sans do you have a girlfriend?” I asked it wasn’t at all recent but it seemed as though there was some magic keeping it there. The sweater also adjusted so it didn’t hang too loosely around my body it felt like a hug from a parent that was excited to meet their child’s new significant other and hugging the person of choice. But it also felt sad like the magical being that was attached to this sweater wished it could do this in real life but had been gone for a long time.

“No why?” He asked carefully opening an eye then opening the second as he saw my terrified face. He sat up. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost what happened?”

“Have you ever had a skeleton girlfriend?” I asked almost seeing a ghostly figure appear in front of me.

“No… Me and Papyrus are the last of our kind why? What’s wrong?” He said looking a little spooked and he came over and sat on the end of the couch chasing away the ghastly figure who had looked very similar to Sans in appearance.

“No! Wait come back! Who are you?” I involuntarily called to it.

“Uhh hi my name is Sans. I think you need to sleep because you’re starting to see things now.” He said looking at me as I watched the mists part.

“No. No. I know who you are. I just saw the female version of you. She was sad. She wishes that she could see you know, she wishes she could see how grown up you’ve become.” I had no clue as to why I knew this, I just did. “Did you have any female skeletons that died?”

“My mom did… A long time ago. There’s no way you could’ve seen her. My dad completely destroyed her soul.” He said.

“Do monsters attach parts of their souls to certain objects?” I asked quickly.

“Humans do it too but sometimes if a monster dies or its soul is destroyed it will attach itself to an object so its family could remember it… Are you trying to say…” I was so excited I could barely contain it.

“Your mom still watches over you. Even if you thought she was gone forever.” His eyes grew three times their normal size.

“I always wondered… That sweater always brought me luck. I guess I just never had any proof.” He said looking a little dazed.

“Well now you do. Do you want it back now that you have this information?” I asked figuring that he might.

“No you can keep it tonight. Tomorrow, though, I will want it back.” He said getting up off my couch moving back to his. I shrugged, not complaining. It was warm and soft and it was his so I liked the fact I got to steal it.

“If you want it back just let me know.” I said pulling a blanket over me and rolling over and falling asleep within minutes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well this can only get more intense from here... Right?


	11. I am an awkward tomato and Sans is an awkward blueberry but we lived so it's fine..

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Riley decides to jump over a metaphorical 50 foot high hurdle

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll let this chapter explain itself.

The next morning I grumbled awake on the couch. Muttering I rolled over and saw something standing not too far away. I blinked all the way awake and saw Sans just looking at me with a strange expression. He had stolen my sweater and he had the hood up but the sweater was unzipped and his left eye was just tinted blue. It was kinda cute aside from the fact he was looking at me with this expression of… Well to put it simply in those comics and cartoons where the characters had heart eyes for another character? This was it’s real life big brother.

_This should be creepy… Why isn’t it creepy? I stared at him a little longer Well I think I know why… I don’t think I want to live in fear of this… a relationship anymore I… I want to try this again. But not with just anybody… I want to try this with someone I trust, someone I know… I want to try this with Sans…_

I cleared my throat to announce that I was in fact alive. He jumped his eye intensifying for a second before relaxing again. His eye dimmed into the beautiful violet color that they usually were.

“So… How long have you been standing there?” I asked he blushed and looked at the ground shifting his feet on the carpet.

“Longer than I’d like to admit…” He said quietly “Sorry… I’ll get out of your hair now.” He said starting to retreat to his room.

“Wait Sans can we talk about this?” I said sitting up. He paused then shook his head and kept backing away. I got up and leaned in the doorway. He turned a serious shade of blue but stopped, leaning on the door attempting to act like everything was fine, cocking his head slightly to one side almost winking at me except my expression wasn’t one that was up for him to try and joke out of this.

“What do you want out of this?” He asked and I handed him his sweater back and we swapped. After that he was standing there trying to fix his sloppily sideways hood I reached around him and pushed it so it accentuated the fuzz it had on the inside and with the look on his face and his blushing. The combo was actually pretty adorable. “Did you fix it?” He asked.

“No but I like it the way it is. Don’t move.” I said taking a selfie with him. He even stuck out his tongue which added to the effect. I set it as his contact picture in my phone. He smiled.

“Okay well if you’re gonna make me look like an idiot I get to make you look like an idiot right back.” He purred running his claws through my hair

“HEY!!!” I growled playfully letting him ruffle it and letting him mess with my sweater he pushed the boundaries a little bit and just had the shoulder of the sweater so it showed my shirt underneath leaving my hair more of a haystack then it already had been. “I’m assuming you didn’t fix anything?” The answer I got was not what I anticipated

“What are you talking about? You didn’t need fixing in the first place.” I blushed a little bit more than was necessary.

“Thanks but I need a lot more fixing than you realize.” I said and he was suddenly the confident one.

“Hey your friends are here to help you if you need it. I’ll do as much as I can to help if it makes you feel any better.” He offered. I smiled and wished I could tell him but I knew somewhere in the depths of my mind that if I gave anyone that kind of trust they would backstab me again and I probably wouldn’t walk away from it like I had the last time.

“Thanks I appreciate it but they’re more…. Personal scars.” he shrugged seeming indifferent.

“We all have ‘em. Just let me know if I can help.”

“I will. Thanks.” He didn’t respond but just made eye contact with me as if he wasn’t sure where he was going with this.

“Sooo….” The blush around his cheekbones returned. “Did you need to talk to me about something else or were we just going to stand here and be dumb?” He knew exactly what I wanted to talk to him about he was procrastinating for as long as he could. Honestly this was probably going to be a painful conversation and I was just as reluctant to have it as he was.

“Yeah so I think we need to work out a better plan then crashing at one another’s place and then just watching the other person wake up. It’s kind of creepy. Unless we we’re dating, then it’s not.” Man this got uncomfortable so fast. So fast. We both stood there looking at the ground pretending the other one didn’t exist but also trying to sneak glances at the other one.

“Yeah uhhhh…. I agree… Kind of weird…. Have any ideas on how to fix that?” He said after a long awkward pause. It was pretty obvious he was thinking something but I wasn’t so sure about what I was thinking. Rob’s words rang in my head Maybe you don’t like one of them now but I feel like you’re going to reconsider. It’s okay to fall in love again. I growled silently to myself.

“Here let’s go for a walk, I feel like this might be a conversation to have where there’s fresh air and we can think clearly.” He nodded and followed me out of the apartment building. We walked in silence for a long time. The sun creeping along the sidewalks. It was also really freaking cold for the beginning of September. Sans didn’t seem bothered by it though. Maybe that’s because he grew up in the arctic. I snapped sarcastically at myself. (I beat myself up a lot when I get nervous or anxious. Or too much more overstimulated then a semi-neutral me and even then. It’s just a thing. It’s fine. Someone once told me that you weren’t crazy for talking to yourself unless you weren’t aware of it. I was plenty aware of my own argument with myself.)

“Can I just tell you something?” He said finally. I nodded shivering a little bit. “I’m sorry that I’ve been super awkward lately it’s just… I’m trying to work something out and it’s not really working out the way I want it to so... Sorry for being a creepy stalker.” I giggled a little at this last bit and he looked pleased that he had gotten me to smile even though this was pretty uncomfortable.

“Yeah I’m sorry too it’s weird I’ve had things come up lately and I might be scrapping the rule pretty soon. Just let me know if I can help you in any way.” He suddenly seemed alert when I said that I was scrapping the rule. I hadn’t meant to say it, it just came out I guess. I’d been thinking about it ever since Rob told me that I could try again and I guess I had just told someone of my decision.

“You’re destroying the rule? Who for? Why? If it’s kept you safe for so long?” Sans asked intrigued. We came upon a flower bed and saw a humming bird dancing from flower to flower. This was a particularly small one of it’s kind.

We sat and watched it for a minute it’s oddly intriguing ritual luring us in. It danced happily from flower to flower for a long time before it got stuck in between some of the plants thorny branches. I tried to help it but Sans stopped me pointing out two more birds. The newcomers came and helped the first one push it’s way out of the plant’s trap. Once free, the second two birds started to fly away. Stopping when they realized the first wasn’t following. The first looked around hesitant at first but ended up flying away with its two new friends. We watched them fly away towards the rising sun.

“Maybe that’s why.” I commented leaning on Sans a little bit just reactionally because he was warm and I wasn’t. He seemed more confused about my statement then my physical behavior even going so far as to wrap his arm around my shoulder.

“What’s ‘that’s’ in this situation?” he asked his breath glittering in the sunlight.

“Maybe I’m the bird that was stuck in the plant and the plant was the things that preventing me from living life, and the person I’m demolishing this rule for is one of the birds that came and helped it.” He pondered this observation and I felt like a giant nerd but I am, so I really don’t care.

“Who are you doing this for?” he asked thoughtfully. I smiled and just to give him a hard time said.

“You’ll have to figure that out for yourself.” He grunted and blew air through my hair which didn’t change my mind at all seeing as how he had already messed it up earlier. He sat for a minute but answered the most obvious choice first

“You’re going with Rob aren’t you?” He said he seemed a little saddened by this but also a little happy about it at the same time. I shook my head. “No?”

“Not Rob. I love the guy but I never could have him by my side like that. Great friend, not someone I would date.” Sans hummed thoughtfully.

“I was going to say Papyrus but you probably have a chance with this person?” He said after a time.

“Yeah it’s not a bad thing again great person, just not someone I would date. Or could date. He’s um gay.. Not a bad thing by any means. I support him just being him, but not something I can work with.” I said knowing that Papyrus was a touchy subject for Sans. He sat for a long time and he slowly got warmer under me.

“Oliver?” he asked running out of people. I knew I hadn’t told him about all my guy friends. Some of them I didn’t see often enough to mention. I denied Sans’ claim. “I really only have one other option don’t I?” he said sighing.

“You don’t have to say it, and we can go home and pretend this never happened.” I offered he shook his head.

“I really think I’m crazy for even thinking this but you never know until you try….. It’s me isn’t it?” I blushed and looked at the ground, beating around the bush about it rather than actually getting the feelings out there were two very different things. I nodded very slowly.

“If you want it to be....” He stayed silent for a long time. He didn’t say anything vocally at least. He moved so he was generally more affectionate. His hand went slowly from my shoulder to my own hand. Carefully entwining his fingers with my own. Expecting me to pull away but I didn’t. He also half-nuzzled me. I guess that’s what it was he didn’t exactly nuzzle me but he did press his skull into my cheek. Okay maybe that’s a nuzzle, but whatever. He was acting like he expected me to run from him but I didn’t instead electing to return his gestures of affection closing my hand around his boney fingers and leaning into him more. We stayed like this for a long, long time not saying anything just thinking. “You don’t have to reciprocate if you don’t feel that way.” I told him finally, the anxiety trying to kill me.

“I… I feel the same way I…. just feel like I’m fucking 15 and I feel like I’m taking advantage of you by loving you as much as I do and I feel so selfish taking you as mine and I don’t want to become Sam. I don’t want to hurt you like he did.” He growled seeming to hate himself.

“Sans, I know that that’s scary for you but I’m making the decision to let you be that for me so you’re not taking advantage of me. I know that Sam is probably going to loom over me for the rest of my life but I couldn’t imagine a better person who could prove him wrong then you.” I did my best to reassure him, even though I wasn’t very good at it.

“There’s Rob.” He pointed out.

“No, Rob’s worse nightmare is becoming Sam. They were close before everything happened. They were basically brothers and Rob is still terrified of that. Yes you’re scared of it but you never knew him and you are much more of a different person then they are. Rob is basically what Sam was before he changed.” I said and he relaxed his grip on my hand a little bit, letting the circulation return to it.

“So you’re choosing me over anyone else?” He asked his voice quivering like he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

“Exactly.” I confirmed and he warmed up like he was excited by this and a little embarrassed that he was my pick.

“Well I’ll do my best. I promise I’ll protect you and I won’t do any of the things Sam did to you. I promise I’ll never let myself or anything else hurt you.” He said pulling it together so I knew he was serious about this and I appreciated the extra effort.

I purred, “I know you will. Just know this is a two-way street and if you ever need something, I’m here for you.” I said and he nuzzled my neck testing how far he was allowed to go with it.

“Well I was wondering if you wanted to grab some dinner with me later?” He purred.

“Ohhh is this a date?” I purred now playing with him knowing my answer. He looked a little confused.

“Yes?”

“I know I’m just playing with you. Yes, I’ll go with you.” He looked a little relieved.

“Cool… Umm I’m going to get us somewhere where we’re not just sitting here in the middle of the sidewalk deal?” I nodded and he teleported us under a tree nearby looking over the giant lake that this park was built around. The water glittered and shined in the early morning sun. It took a moment for Sans to figure out what he was doing but after a second he was able to look at the scenery *Ahem me apparently* and still do his half nuzzle thing that looked suspiciously like a skeleton kiss (since skeletons don’t usually tell people they can move their mouths they nuzzle coming as close as possible to kissing the person but not quite. Which I thought was strange since he knows I know he can do that… So like what the hell?). We just sat there for at least and hour I was excited that it had worked out and Sans looked like he was the happiest person that ever walked the earth, letting me wrap my tail around us.

“So do you have something against kissing or are you good with nuzzling?” I asked raising an eyebrow. I didn’t mind the attention or the nuzzling I just expected him to not be able to resist.

“No I have nothing against it. People tend to be scared off by the skull and bone rather than flesh.” He responded seeming to have a particular memory in mind.

“So if I were to kiss you, you wouldn’t kill anybody?” I asked and he blushed a little.

“No. I would reciprocate. I’m just umm bone. Probably not the best life choice.” He said seeming to pick up where I was going with this even if I wasn’t myself.

“Hey you never know till you try.” I pointed out relaxing a little bit he looked a little confused by the mixed signals. Fuck it. No harm in trying. I took his face in my hands and kissed him. His breathing stopped. Yeah it was a strange sensation at first. But it was intriguing at the same time. Especially when he responded. It wasn’t nearly as bad as he had made it seem like it was going to be. Hell I could get used to it. He purred when I didn’t pull away immediately. Putting more into it running a hand through my hair and adding a little bit of tongue. Man I liked the way he tasted. I really thought about that statement as soon as it popped into my head but I decided I wasn’t wrong. He eventually pulled away knowing the moment had probably dragged on a little bit too long. “Was that the end of the world?” I teased him and he smiled he was definitely the happiest person who ever walked on the face of the earth now.

“I think the one who should be asking that question should be me. But hey I got a kiss from the one person I want one from. I’ll call it a win. You?” I purred.

“You’re so awkward it’s so cute.” I kissed him again. He responded much quicker this time but also made this one much more momentary.

“So a win all around?” He murmured nuzzling my neck again taking my hands in his own.

“Definitely.” I said examining the back of his hand seeing the flaws in his bones they were perfect little flaws a tiny scar here. A small birthmark there. I’m not saying whatever caused his scars was pretty I’m just saying that I liked them despite the possible dark side too them. We relaxed in silence for a long time.

“Does this have to end?” He asked when the sun was hidden behind the yellowing leaves of the tree. I thought of a response

“We have to get up eventually but we don’t have to end this kind of affection because we can be together.” I offered, not sure what else to say. He seemed satisfied with this answer and moved so I could stand up without hurting something. I did so offering a hand to help him up. We walked around the park for a little longer before heading back home. Papyrus was texting Mettaton sleepily on Sans’ couch when we got back.

“OH THERE YOU GUYS ARE...WHERE WERE YOU TWO?” he said when he noticed us.

We glanced at each other and I said, “We were putting a few things to rest.” Papyrus looked like he wasn’t sure if we meant we went and killed things or if we went and talked to someone about some political problem or something.

“OKAY….? CAN YOU GUYS TELL ME IF YOU DO THAT AGAIN?? I WAS GETTING WORRIED.”

Sans spoke up, “Yeah sorry Pap. We’ll let you know.” The large skeleton nodded appreciatively and went back to what he was doing. I grabbed my phone and snuggled with Sans on my couch. He looked like he was ready for a nap and I wasn’t going to stop him. I unlocked my phone and texted Rob.

“Guess who has a boyfriend now?” Less than 5 minutes passed before I got a reply.

“Told you.” I could almost hear his laughter.

“The talk needed to happen.” I responded defending myself.

“Who caught who?” The fact that he already knew what had happened.

“I caught him.” I said feeling Sans fall asleep beneath me his breathing deepening.

“Good job.”

“We both really didn’t want to have the conversation.” I said basically asking him if I did it right.

“Those are the conversations that anxiety really wants to kill you, especially if you know you're going to be rejected.” He pointed out from Sans’ viewpoint.

“Even though my feelings were the first ones actually put on the table.”

“You both knew about his long before he told you.”

“STILL.” I said laughing to myself which Sans responded to by wrapping his arms around my belly.

“So did you say it or did you Loki your way out of telling him yourself?”

“They don’t call me Loki for nothing.”

“Goddamnit Rye.”

“What? It got the point across.”

“Yeah but you expect him to come clean about his feelings when you make him call you on your crap?”

“Thanks for the anxiety attack.” I texted. He did have a point and that made my anxiety jump around in its cage. Even though Sans snuggled into me and Papyrus’ strange look told me that it worked out fine this way.

“Sorry. Judging by the fact you addressed him as ‘Your boyfriend’ makes me assume it worked out?”

“With very long awkward pauses in between sentences.”

“Yikes.”

“It turned out fine.”

“Agreed. So what are you people up to now?”

“Me and Sans are chilling on the couch, Sans fell asleep and Papyrus is trying to figure out what’s happening and it’s funny to watch.” I said putting a laughing-so-hard-I’m-crying emoji after the statement.

“Nap silly.” He said returning the emoji.

“I don’t know man last time….” I said just playing with him, half-asleep myself.

“Worry about being judged later.”

“Eh Papyrus won’t think twice of it. It’s Sans I worry about.”

“I mean get used to it.”

“But…”

“He’s not letting go of you anytime soon. Just sleep.”

“If you insist.” I responded setting my phone on my chest and snuggling into Sans hoodie. He held me tight and I drifted off to sleep with a beaming and knowing Papyrus quietly watching Mettaton on the couch next to us.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes I know the story line went like this "Not dating anyone, not dating anyone, not dating anyone, but you I'll date." I'm going to do my best to explain why she did that and ummm yeah, that's what I got for this one.


	12. Caffine, tears and rabbit cubes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Sans and have a moment of real talk and set rules and then hit the "Dating start!!!" button. Not actually

Waking back up almost gave me a heart attack. Sans laughed softly like he had expected me jerking into reality like I had broken something. He was patient as the memories came flooding back. Once they all did, I relaxed back into him. Papyrus was nowhere to be seen but otherwise the place was exactly how it had been before my nap. I wasn’t too out of it although I had expected to be. Though my body definitely wanted caffeine and wanted it badly, threatening the dreaded caffeine headache if I didn’t give it a soda.

“I’ll let you wake up then can we have a serious talk about what we’re doing with this?” He purred softly and let me pull away from his ribs even though I really didn’t want to.

“With this boyfriend/girlfriend thing? Yeah just let me get some caffeine.” I said clearing my throat.

“Yeah okay.” He said watching me cross the room and grabbing a cup and filling it about a quarter of the way with ice and grabbing a soda can from the fridge. I had a dozen or so hidden in there for weekends. I say hidden but really I mean haphazardly put into Sans’ side of the fridge because Papyrus’ was a “Spaghetti museum.” Which was weird because I did see leftovers of some sort behind the row or two of spaghetti. But anytime I would ask either of the boys about it they would have no idea. I think that Mettaton was right in saying that Papyrus was smarter then he let on. Especially if Sans had been tortured to protect him. Of course Papyrus wouldn’t want his scarred brother to know that he knew everything and played the fool to protect Sans as much as Sans had protected him.

I poured my soda and went back to the couch not sure exactly if it’d be weird to snuggle back up to Sans. We sat there for a bit not moving aside from our breathing and my sipping my soda. Sidenote: I was holding my soda my right hand (Side side note: Right handed. In case that ever comes up) and that was the side Sans was sitting on so yeah just thought that’d I point that out especially since I eventually moved the soda to my left hand because my right got cold pretty quickly. He took this opportunity and paused my hand before I rested it on the couch. I glanced at him and took his hand and his face lit up like he was excited that I was okay with this little gesture. So yeah I feel like these conversations are slightly awkward because neither of us are sure what’s appropriate or what’s going to get someone kicked or me jumping away and killing myself on something. Hence why this conversation was being… Formulated? I don’t think that’s the word I’m looking for. I wanted to say conceived but that’s DEFINITELY not the word I’m looking for. Nothing is happening here that shouldn’t be. Sans is not getting laid and hasn’t so far. (Even though he lowkey probably wishes that’s what was happening right now because….. boys?) Wow I’m all over the place. Okay sorry, my brain is doing flips since I was currently holding hands with my boyfriend thing sooo heh….. Okay I’m good. Anyways, I finished my soda and he asked me

“Ready to talk now?”

“Yeah umm can we lay out some ground rules first?” I responded putting the cup aside.

“I’m assuming you had a couple planned out?” He said softly waiting until the cup was all the way out of my hands before wrapping his arms around me, not letting go of my hand. This was when I realized that drinking iced drinks in a slightly chilly apartment made it so I was cold. Point here was that Sans was nice and warm and I more than happily snuggled into his ribs. Which he seemed all in for.

“Yup can we come to a consensus that there won’t be any cheating, wandering, whatever you want to call it. If you’re done just tell me it’s much less painful for everyone.” He nodded.

“Yes please. Just speaking from experience, it sucks.” He said readily but thoughtfully.

“You have someone like that?”

“I was 18 at the time and she… Yeah let’s just say that she decided her ex-husband was better than me.” He said pausing.

“Oh yikes.” I said flinching a little.

“Our relationship wasn’t sexual or anything it just happened.” He said “I thought I meant something, but I guess not.”

“Okay noted. Just know that I have negative 8 million desire to get back with my ex boyfriend.” He smiled.

“Thanks. I’m not going anywhere as long as you’re not going anywhere.”

“Agreed.” I purred flicking my tail over my hip so it’s tip rested on my stomach.

“Any other rules?”

“Not a rule but just general you should know. Don’t plan on getting laid anytime soon. Cool?” He didn’t laugh like I expected him to.

“Understood. I get that your body hasn’t been treated kindly by the planet. I’ll do my best to treat you better than that. Just tell me when you want something and I’ll do my best to give it to you.” He retained a dead serious expression and I couldn’t tell if he was just saying those words but I liked the things he did say and something told me he wasn’t lying.

“I’m gonna trust you.” I responded quietly.

“Thank you. I won’t betray that trust if it takes my life.” He said still solid as ever.

“That’s commitment. Thanks. Me too. I know you have to put a good deal of trust in me too.” I said doing my best to keep my tail from getting in the way but it was annoying the absolute crap out of me. He didn’t grab it exactly but he used a hand and just rested it in front of my tails path and gently pushed it off the couch which bam like magic made everything just feel better.

“Well I’m going to tell you know that I’m three emotional train wrecks and no one got out alive. So sorry if I just have a meltdown just randomly.” He said averting his gaze like he was a little ashamed that he had flaws.

“Hey, hey it’s going to be okay. I’ll help you work through it.” I said pulling away from him so I was facing him. He was visibly shaken by the fact he had no control over what he did I somehow suspected the water forming around his eyes hadn’t gone through the filter in his brain. “Hey it’s okay.” I hugged him and he buried his face into my shoulder.

“I hate that I have no control over what I do. I never have. Damn Gaster! I’m glad I threw him in CORE. He deserved it.” He growled, but his arms wrapped around me and held me for a long time. I really wanted to say something but I really wasn’t sure what I could say so I didn’t say anything. Man it was painful to have to sit there and watch his own brain beat the control into him but I really didn’t have a choice or a better way to get him to get out of the shaking, crying, pained state he was in now. It took several minutes and a couple tries but he finally did. He sort of jerked away from me like he wasn’t sure if I was going to be fine with this blatant display of weakness. Which really, him having weaknesses was okay. I mean the reason he had weakness wasn’t okay. (Don’t do this to anybody. Just don’t. It’s horrible.) When he let go I backed away a little bit gently wiping the last of his tears away. He growled and looked down. “Sorry. That was stupid.” He seem to pull it together. He hugged me again. _Is this for last night? Probably not just how it happened._

“Not your fault and I know that there will be more than one occasion where I will be in the same boat.”

He eventually let go again and said, “Well this has been an interesting conversation.”

I smiled. “Naw it’s totally normal for us.” I purred and got an affectionate nuzzle in response.

“Off topic but how far am I allowed to go with you?”

“What?” I was slightly confused.

“Where should I avoid if I’m cuddling you?” He reiterated which made me laugh.

“You could’ve just asked when you would’ve been kicked.” I teased.

“Then you sound like an ass.”

“Eh I won’t kick you, but good rule of thumb is if it’s lower than my stomach you will know.”

“I’d rather not be kicked by a horse.” He purred and he looked happy.

“I didn’t say I would kick you did I?” I purred nuzzling into his ribs. He smiled and nuzzled my neck which sent shivers up my spine. Minutes passed and we both decided we needed food and he said that if I wanted Grillby’s again he had nothing opposed to it. I told him we needed to get something real instead of um just fries he agreed and handed me his sweater.

“I think you won this.” I took it excitedly and hugged it before actually putting it on the look on his face was priceless.

“What? The best part of having a boyfriend is getting to steal all of their stuff. Namely their clothes.” I purred.

“Not the affection or companionship or because you like having them around. Stealing their clothes is the best part.” He responded I couldn’t tell if he was confused or if he was irritated or if he was just playing. His face said confusion. His voice said irritation, his words said that he was just screwing around.

“Bad joke?” I asked tentatively.

“No I was playing along.”

“Okay good.”

“No I hate you! Get out of my life!” He purred teasingly shoving me aside in a friendly manner going out into the hallway backwards so he could look at me.

“Really now?” I said and I kissed him and he froze half in the hallway. He was catching on faster. Not too much faster but he didn’t sit there looking stupid for a half minute. It was more like 15 seconds now. But when he did respond he made up for the fact he was super, super awkward because he was, well, Sans and apparently he doesn’t have any clue. But he’s still young and inexperienced and he could learn. Not to say I was any better off. Actually he probably knew stuff. I was 100% clueless. Okay my brain is going haywire again so I’ll shut up.

A couple minutes of this warm embrace-kiss-thing passed and I gently pushed him away. He purred and walked by my side. We got into the elevator and Sans couldn’t resist shooting a triumphant glance at two monsters who looked at me like they were wondering if I was single (So checking me out I guess?) and Sans came up behind me and held my hand and he looked really proud of himself. The monster’s eyes widened and went straight to the ground. I leaned against Sans’ ribs and he looked like he was the luckiest guy alive. Which he was because not everybody gets a safe rule scrapped for them. The elevator stopped and let the monsters out and then we had it to ourselves for a minute or two until it got down to the parking garage I tried to remember where I had parked the car and then I remembered that it was the same as I where I always parked the car because where else would I go? Don’t judge me it’s been an emotional roller coaster of a day. I got into the driver’s seat and leaned back into it. Letting out my breath.

“Tired already?” He asked getting in shotgun.

“Yeah just a little.” I said after having a second of panic not able to catch my breath but my lungs expanded powerfully after a little bit of effort was put into it.

“Adrenaline crash?” He prodded a little more.

“I feel like I could sleep for 8 years and still be tired.”

“Yeah?” He purred his mouth turning up into a smile his voice only just hinting at mockery

“Just because you don’t have adrenaline to have crash doesn’t mean you can gloat about it.” I grumbled making him laugh which made me inexplicably happy. He saw this expression change and smiled a little bit more letting me take his hand more a couple seconds before I sighed and let him go again so I could drive.

*******************

Upon arriving at Grillby’s, Sans didn’t hesitate for even a second in coming up beside me and taking my hand letting me lean a majority of my weight against him

“Random comment but that rabbit person was totally trying to hit on you yesterday.” I said thinking about the death stare I’d get now that Rans was actually a thing.

“Really?” He asked looking like he had never suspected it. Because of course he hadn’t.

“I think she’s been trying to for a long time.” He paused for a second and he seemed to remember a couple incidents

“Holy shit.”

“Yeah…. So guess who might get a couple death stares tonight.” I said he growled and squeezed my hand.

“So you’re worried she’s going to try something.” He guessed.

“Maybe just a little.” I said a little embarrassed that I was nervous about a RABBIT CUBE THING…? He smiled.

“If she causes trouble I’ll deal with her personally and trust me she will not have a good time while I do it.” He said solidly. I wrapped my tail around him and he purred, “You’re alright?”

“Yeah just.. Nervous…”

“Hey if there’s anyone to be nervous about it’s Grill.” I smiled and he opened the door into the building.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First: Yes there is a bad time joke in there. It's not specifically a "You're gonna have a bad time." but its there.  
> Second: Yes Sans dated Toriel for a while but honestly I HATE the Soreil ship it's soo creepy if you like it, fine just keep it away from me it makes me mad.


	13. Grillby got burned.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Sans, Riley and Grillby are just screwing around now.

Halfway through the doorway he shoved me playfully and I whipped around catching my balance. I grabbed his shoulder blades and pulled him to me and his lips met mine which caught me off guard. He wrapped his arms around my back but I pushed off of his chest before it got too too lengthy or carried away.

“Aww come on! All I wanted was a little love!” He purred happily following me wrapping an arm around me and testing the boundaries just a tiny bit and put his hand on my hip which earned him a cold look but I didn’t stop him. Oh man the look on that rabbit’s face. I couldn’t resist a tiny, tiny smirk. The expression of pure hatred set in her fur. Grillby gave us a fiery color that reminded me of an eye roll.

“So you two lovebirds going to eat something or should I just direct you to the couch's back there where the rest of the teenagers hang?” He said though his voice was playful.

“Hey just because you’re long past the years of frolicking around with the girl of your dreams doesn’t mean you get to spit on us.” Sans responded. I blushed a little at the compliment.

“Hey, hey, hey I think you got this backwards. I think you are just jealous that I know the boundaries and I have picked my forever mate.” He said putting up his hands.,

“I think you miss the excitement of being with someone new. With it being a new love still.” I sat at a smaller more tucked in the corner table enjoying the boys’ comments. I knew Grillby was just giving him a hard time and Sans was just playing with the older monster.

“I bet you wish you weren't sleeping alone still huh?” He teased setting two glasses of water down twirling Sans’ straw with a flaming finger.

“I think you miss the ability to sleep with your mate without a daughter to worry about huh?” Sans retorted.

“She’s 18 now! She’s hit the same stage you two have! I can’t control how many boys she has over in a week only her mother has that power but she doesn’t care as long as she’s being smart about it.”

“Sounds like you’re jealous of the fact I don’t HAVE a daughter that has boys over!” Sans said finding his weapon.

“Guess what? You ARE the boy Riley’s bringing over!” The flame snapped back and Sans shrugged.

“Guess what? Her parents are mature enough to accept the fact that she is old enough to be having these kinds of relationships!” Sans said closing his eyes and purring. Grillby froze and it made me laugh too too hard

“Need some ice there buddy?” I asked him fishing an ice cube from my water cup quickly with a cat’s paw. The living flame shook his fiery head and I shrugged and popped the ice cube in my mouth crunching it between my back teeth.

“You win this time Sans. Can I get you anything to eat?” He said and we ordered and Grillby walked away to go grab it. While we waited, Sans entertained himself by playing with my fingers examining the lines in my palms and when he got to examining the middle joints he curled the tips of my fingers with his own but instead of watching the way they moved and curled like I expected he kissed them softly looking me dead in the face, before going back to looking at the way my hand curled and twitched in his own. He also appeared to be watching my facial expressions to see what I liked and what I wasn’t so into. His results might’ve been mildly skewed since I had to freaking pee. I got up the gumption to do so and he let me without saying anything. On my way back the rabbit thing “accidently” bumped into me.

“What is your problem?” I growled as she forcefully shoved a side into me.

“It’s not a problem with me. It’s a problem with YOU.” She responded, voice like claws on a chalkboard.

“I did nothing! I just was minding my own business until you decided I had destroyed your life.” …Yeah I walked right into that one didn’t I?

“You DID destroy my life. I lived to try and get his attention! Before the monsters were free of the barrier he would come in every thirty minutes and I thought it was for me! Because it WAS. But then we all moved to the surface and he started coming in only once a week. Now I realize that he was with you! That cheating bastard.”

“I’m sorry WHAT did you just call him?” I snarled my hands becoming claws reactionally. _Nobody called my best friend that. Nobody._ She eyed them like she didn’t really care.

“He was supposed to marry me! As a kid we would always play together at recess and he told me----”

“He told you nothing.” Grillby stood in the entryway to the hall his fire a cold but serious orange arms crossed and his head slightly cocked. “If you don’t like the fact that he’s happy with who he’s with right now then you can shut your mouth and walk out that big wooden door because I will not tolerate you trying to get your way by attacking someone who makes him happy. Riley go sit with Sans. You.” He turned back to the rabbit his flames jumping away from him he signalled her table and the rabbit skulked off.

“Thanks.” I said. He shrugged.

“I haven’t seen Sans this happy since his mother died. You’re good for him. I give him shit about it but you’re the first girlfriend he’s brought here that he’s looked so excited to be around. He’s sitting out there twiddling his thumbs not sure what to do with himself when you’re not there---”

I interrupted, “You could just say you like me. That’d be simplier.” I said blinking slowly.

“I thought that’d be weird since you’re dating him now---”

“Just say it. I won’t take it badly I know what you mean.”

He sighed, “I like you. You’re a good kid.”

“Thanks….OOOOh but aren’t you married?” I teased loudly and he shoved me into the main room.

“Shut your trap.” He said but it sounded like he was laughing. I laughed and stumbled over to Sans again sitting in the chair opposite him. Grillby was right Sans, looked absolutely ECSTATIC that I had returned even though I couldn’t have been gone for more than 10 minutes. I offered him my still cold (sink water) hand. He took it excitedly. Seeing him be this excited to umm watch my hand flex and curl and shift in his palm it made me ecstatic and more than willing to show off the human tricks I came built with.

“Sans?” I asked quietly because to us there was no other sound than just the two of us and we weren't saying anything.

“Yeah? What’s up? Do you want me to stop making you show me what you can do with your powers?” He asked quickly.

“No, no that’s not it. I’m not exactly sure how to say this but… I like being around you. You make me super happy even if it’s just the thought of you.” He looked me in the eyes his violet sparkling irises looked overjoyed but also collected.

“I like being around you too. You make me super happy too even if I don’t get to see you at all during the day I still can’t get you out of my mind. Thanks.. For being willinging to trust me.” He said gently bumping his skull into mine affectionately. I returned the gesture.

“Hey this as much your relationship as it is mine. You’re putting as much trust in it as I am.” I was glad of my decision earlier today because the warm fuzzy feeling in my chest made me sure that I was ready to start the next chapter of my life and leave Sam far, far, behind me.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Only thing here is the rabbit made up them hanging out as kids. Sans didn't hang out with anyone but Papyrus, Undyne, and Alphys. Other then that he was pretty introverted.


	14. Well it was all going good till Sans scared himself but even so we did alright.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Sans and Riley stay up late playing MadLibs because why not?

I made the decision to not tell Sans about the encounter with the rabbit until we got home since I wasn’t sure how he was going to react and I’d rather Grillby still had a business to run. Shortly after I sat back down at the table, Grillby came out with our food setting it steaming on the table. I almost did a happy dance, my stomach aching for me to just inhale it. Sans insisted he steal a bite of my food before I swallowed it whole he put a hand over my face and took it comically slow because he found my look of *slight* annoyance to be rather amusing and/or cute. He swallowed finally and got his hand out of the way of my rain of teeth, a tiny smile creeping up his face when I had didn’t leave a crumb after about 6 minutes. He ate his a lot slower. Not like a normal person by any means but not me fast. I eyed his fries but didn’t ask for any knowing his food was his food and I’d kill him if he went for mine when I was hungry. When he finished he pushed his extra food at me which I excitedly ate much slower than the first time but just as happy for the extra scraps. It wasn’t even like I didn’t get enough to eat. I was just ALWAYS. HUNGRY. It wasn’t something that was new. Sans was aware if he asked if I wanted food and I said no that something was seriously, seriously wrong. Was this healthy for me? Probs not. But it’s what my stomach tells me to give it so I oblige, knowing that if I didn’t my stomach would make my day go from an okay one to make it go to shit thanks to the fact it made me vomit if I didn’t listen to its demands. Not sure why. I think it has something to do with the liver failure but I can’t confirm that. 

Anyways, we talked for a bit longer Grillby bringing us fries, because he was aware of the fact that the sliced potatoes was basically our form of coffee when making small talk. Because Sans wasn’t a super big caffeine guy and I personally didn’t like coffee. Funny story, but I think I might have accidently gotten Sans hooked on caffeine. It wasn’t like I had been trying to either. He just came up to me late one night and asked to steal some of the soda I had so he didn’t fall asleep and I gave him some, and ever since I’ve noticed my needing to refill my soda supply in my fridge much more frequently. As a trade off for him sneaking one or two a day, I made him refill the soda spot every once in awhile. I had nothing against harboring his little habit, but it was just the price I had been raised with. “If your gonna tap into the soda supply then you gotta pay up and that, for you, means you gotta make sure there’s cold sodas for us.” This had always been what my dad told me when I was old enough to appreciate the god that is caffeine. So I guess it was just something I passed along. 

Eventually Grillby kicked us out so he could close up and we got home relatively uneventfully. Also trying to figure out the sleeping arrangement was a little bit more of a discussion than it should’ve been. It was literally a yes or no question. It wasn’t like either of us meant it sexually it was just a “Wanna chill and just hang in your room and sleep in the same space?” not “Can I get all up in your space?” kind of thing. Eventually we decided that we would (attempt to) give it a little more time because of that sexual realm looming over that question and ended up attempting to sleep in our own apartments. The rule before we were crashing in one spot was that if something happened or one of us had a particularly bad nightmare or something, then they could chill with the other for the remainder of the night and calm down a little bit and we each had a key so we could just let ourselves in. Both of us had needed this on separate occasions and I would tell you who did it more often but I think we’re pretty equal in that and we started doing the couch thing so there wasn’t really any point because we were both right there. 

Well unlike last night we both had energy so we sat there playing some form of MadLibs on the carpet in front of my TV maybe it’s just because of the energy of a new relationship made us super hyped to stay up till 1 in the morning filling in blanks to tell a story or maybe it was just the weird pair that we are. At about 1:30 Sans got up to try to get some sleep and I climbed up from my armchair and rolled onto my bed unscrewifying the blankets (Like when the blankets are all over the place and some are falling off and some are sideways. I call them screwy blankets so I have to unscrewify them. Stop laughing! It’s just something I do okay?) 

A couple hours later I heard the door open (I’m a light sleeper. I’ve been known to wake myself up with the sounds of my own breathing, but on this starry night I happened to be staring up at the roof contemplating life, because, brain) and I blinked my eyes to see the monster who had grown to be one of my closest friends glancing around fearfully his eye glowing a fiery blue leaving the door open just as he stalked in. I signalled him to me as an offer for a hug he took not letting go for a long time. I didn’t ask anything knowing that he would tell me if he wanted to. When he didn’t say anything I offered him a spot and told him to go back to sleep. It took him a couple minutes but as soon as I wrapped my arms around him and held him to me he fell asleep again his breathing deepening and his body relaxing which in turn put me to sleep my head resting somewhere between his shoulder and his neck. Does this sound dumb as all crap? Yes yes it does. Does it help somehow? Yes actually. I don’t know why. I guess that not being forced to deal with the cold darkness of the world by oneself helped both of us somehow. Maybe it was an introvert thing where you only needed one or two exceptionally close friends and those people would make the planet so much more homey. Maybe it was just that both of us having traumatic experiences in the past and just having someone who understands at least a tiny bit, someone we trusted enough to talk to about it made all the difference... I like to hypothesize, don’t I? Oh well. Can I just say that the way bones feel against you is not what you would think it was. Not hard and stiff and uncomfortable like I originally thought they would be but it was actually a lot more like a human. A little bit less in the way of flesh but more like a stomachless human. That made sense I promise. I’ll stop talking now…….. The story we had been filling in actually turned out pretty funny because we were only allowed to use one word per person so Sans picked my name and I picked his because we’re a couple of dorks and have no life…… Okay I’m done for real this time. Probably not, but it’s fine I’m just excited that he trusts me to this degree.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well I hope everyone's buckled in because honestly this is where things are going to start to get interesting this however is nice and short and silly.


	15. Morning... whatever it is where doing.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some causal screwing around because why not?

The next morning I was so close to having a heart attack. So so close. So I regained consciousness a few minutes before I opened my eyes so I let my other senses wake up a little first before trying them out. Guess who I managed to forget was in the same general area as me. If you guessed Sans you would be correct and he being the guy that he was, was just relaxing first thing in the morning playing with the mess that was my hair. It didn’t hurt or anything and he wasn’t breaking any rules I just wasn't expecting to have his bony talons working their way through it. 

Now I say talons but really I just get that word from the way that they’re shaped in comparison to the rest of his body. For example the joints in his shoulders were more rugged and jutted out at certain angles (Think of like a leopard's shoulders as it prepares to pounce.) Compared to his hands and fingers which were much more rounded. The sides of his hand curved in a nice smooth way and the tips of his fingers looked like claws but kept so they couldn’t hurt anybody if he wanted them to. Just the way his body let him move them and the way they looked gave them the name talons or claws because I’m a giant nerd. 

Anyways, I froze while I tried to figure out what the hell was playing with my hair and I’m not sure if he noticed and chose to give me a chance to figure it out on my own or if he had no idea I was awake. 

It took me a lot longer than it should’ve but I was able to figure out that the very quiet male voice that was purring belonged to the skeletal monster next to me. I snuggled into his chest using some form of echolocation to find him because I really didn’t want to wake up all the way yet. He adjusted. I don’t know what it did, but he didn’t move anything that I was pressed into so it was hard to tell. Eventually when he didn’t move anymore except for his hand I decided I needed to do something with my life because there was no way I was going back to sleep at this point. I blinked into reality and saw that I was still wearing Sans’ hoodie and that the monster wore a blank white t-shirt (White? I mean you can wear whatever colors you want I’m not going to stop you but why white? Why is it blank? Why do I care?) and his violet eyes were a pale color like he wasn’t really focusing on the mundane task at hand and was calculating the exact speed of light in his head right now. I nuzzled into his chest with more of an alive energy to bring him back into reality so his brain didn’t explode with the crazy complicated math (I HATE math okay? I’m sorry math lovers out there but it just doesn’t *clears throat* ADD up for me… I’m so sorry I need to hang out with Sans less but ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯. What can I say? I like being around the guy.) He blinked and took his hand out of my hair glancing down at me. 

“Hey there, pretty one.” He purred smoothly. 

“Hey there handsome.” I responded actually shifting my vocal cords just slightly so I was capable of a purr, not a rumbling sound that was close enough to count it. He playfully prodded me, seeing me take the opportunity to show off my magic. I lunged at him tipping him onto his back but not following just deciding that I wasn’t going to be the king of the person rock. Instead resting my head back down on the pillows. Which gave him a second to realize I wasn’t going to tackle him which he seemed a little bit surprised by, but did it for me because he was in the play-fight kind of mood at this particular moment. Despite my half-asleep state I was able to playfully send the skeleton tumbling onto the floor below and I leapt after him wrestling him to the ground again once he challenged me for round three. Hands locked in some form of an arm wrestle before slamming him back into the carpet I purred satisfied with my victory. Turning to go get a soda and some food and grabbing my phone off the nightstand as I went. I was leaning against the island several minutes later sipping my nice cold soda checking my social media when Sans walked out of my room shaking some stiffness from his legs. He walked right up to me just watching my amazing ceremony of sipping my soda and contemplating how my hair looked and if I needed to shower for a second before he took my soda which I almost kicked him for and just stared at me as he drank the whole damn thing before handing a cup of ice back to me 

“Sorry just was checking to see if it was poisonous.” I glared at him and started to turn away and he caught the front of my hip turning me back to him. “Hey, hey, hey come on! What if it had been?” He teased and I raised my eyebrows at him not really mad at him, sure a little annoyed, but not actually going to kick him. He saw my tiniest hint at a smile and he kissed me I made sure it didn’t drag on forever as I’m sure he’d like. Deciding to go get another soda. “You’re not mad at me right?” He asked getting a little worried by my silence. 

“Pro tip: the second you ask someone that is the second that person is mad at you. No I’m not mad, mildly annoyed, but I’ll live.” I said ducking into the fridge grabbing the tin cylinder and leaning against the counter and cracked open my new sparkling soda pulling out my phone again I drained the can into the ice. He approached me again giving me a bit a little room past where I stretched out. I straightened signifying that I didn’t care if he broke the 6 mile bubble room (Normal people generally have to be 6 miles away from me for personal bubble because people scare me.) He happily got right up in my face when I didn’t take my eyes off my phone he glanced sideways like he was a little annoyed. “If you want attention just tell me these things.” I said pretty deadpan closing my social media and opening my text from Rob I just got. 

“Hey do you wanna hang out this weekend or are you busy?” Was all the text said and I still not looking up from my phone addressed the skeleton who was trying to take my phone or get my attention because he couldn’t figure out that if he said “Hey could you put the phone down for two minutes and just kiss me already?” I’d probably do it but as it was I was playing dumb and pretending like I had no clue what the heck he was doing. 

“Hey Sans wanna hang out this weekend or this week?” Weekends were less amount of days but about the equivalent amount of time that we got to be together as the weekdays which was more days but less time per day 

“Why not both?” the monster asked. 

“Because I’m in rehearsal and if we’re not hanging out I’d like to know so I can tell Todd that I’m helping him with set this week.” I responded, picking up and twirling a combination wrench I had had on my counter just laying around in case something broke. Todd, I had learned, was our set guy for this production, and he led a small group who put together the scenery for plays. He said that if I wasn’t busy or doing anything he’d appreciate it if I came and helped him because they always could use an extra set of hands. Oliver would be our house manager. He was in charge of concessions and ushers and ticket sales. Ross was in charge of sound, making the microphones work, pre-show music, making the actors hearable, things like that. Matt and Rob were actors. I believe they had just been given their scripts and were starting to memorize their lines. That’s a lot of theatre terms, I know. I don’t know how better to explain it though. Sorry. 

“Why not both? I’d like to hang out with you and watch the movies you're always nerding out about----” 

“Wait you wanna watch those with me!?!?” I squeaked suddenly very interested. I would tell you the name of the company but I’d rather not get sued. So I guess I’ll have to drop hints. It won’t be that hard. Anyways I had grown up with these superhero movies and they just came out with a new one recently with everyone in it, and so I needed to go through and re-watch all of the backstory movies and so Sans was basically saying that he would watch those with me. 

“If you’ll have me.” He whispered a little sheepishly his cheekbones turning a slightly off-white color. 

“Why are you blushing? What’s so embarrassing about that? Of course I’ll have you!” I exclaimed excitedly because I KNOW it bugs him a little when I’m spazzing out over this one hero who was SO cool in that one movie from 2007 but he had no idea what that one movie from 2007 was so he just sat there and zoned out so he was offering to catch up and I was excited about that. I felt a little bad about turning Rob down though but I figured that Sans is my new boyfriend so I got to hang out with him and I would go and hang with Rob another day when Sans went around the city for his small performances. He’s a professional comedian, I learned, and makes enough to support him and his brother so that’s something for a guy in his late 20’s. He’s actually got a show hosted at my theater coming up after our mainstage production (Macbeth). 

Sans seemed completely psyched that I would be willing to watch movies with him watching as I clicked the “send” button to tell Rob I had some dates with Sans planned for the following week and I’d get back to him if the skeleton was going to go into his rehearsal mode. From the text back I could tell Rob was a tiny bit hurt, but also understanding. A couple more phone-focused minutes passed and Sans finally figured out how to get what he wanted from me. 

“Hey can I ask you something?” 

“Yeah what’s up?” I said clicking the power button on the phone and looking at him. The monster put his hand around the top of it 

“Can I borrow a couple minutes of your morning?” He asked and I let him take my phone from me and let him close the distance between us, kissing me softly I was still getting used to the way things were now. But the amount of hope and excitement that flowed through my system when he didn’t let go for several minutes was enough to keep the anxiety at bay. After what felt like seconds (the clock said otherwise), he pulled away. “Thanks.” He said, starting to walk away. 

“Wait, wait, wait. Get back here.” I said sleepily turning him around and kissing him again. He jumped at the advance but was more than happy to reciprocate the gesture setting his hands on the counter behind me. Side note: there was just a tiny bit of tongues going on here. Not like freakishly a lot for day one but enough that I was getting adjusted to the way he tasted. Still think that's a weird way to put it that way, but I can't think of anything better so we'll stick with that for now. I let him go after a couple minutes. He pushed off the counter. “Thanks.” I mumbled pushing past him as I went to go play Xbox. He followed sitting at the other end of the couch with my phone still. He played with the phone trying to get it to unlock but not able to guess the password. 

He clicked the phone off which made me suspect that he had gotten locked out for thirty seconds. I clicked on the controller and he levitate the TV remote over when he noticed me starting to get up for it. “And this ladies and gentlemen is why I'm dating you.” I said gratefully. 

“I let you be lazy.” He responded his tone a little colder, mostly for the sarcasm. 

“I was gonna say because you're the nicest guy I know. But I guess that works.” I grunted clicking the remote's power button and a little jingle played as the TV sang to life. 

“Still not because I have any sentimental value or anything.” He commented. 

“Nah I like ya fine but I'm highlighting the good things about you.” I retorted turning on my sandbox game. (Sandbox is when you can do next to whatever you want in a game, whenever you want to do it.) 

“If you say so.” He grumbled trying my phone again. I reached over and unlocked it for him, grinning at the glance he gave me. “Hey would you be interested in going to the underground with me sometime?” He asked and I almost turned off the xbox right there. A cave full of monsters? Is this even a question?? 

“Wanna go this weekend sometime?” I offered. His face lit up like a lightbulb. 

“Only if you wanna.” 

“Give me a half hour and we can go right now if you want.” I said. 

“Really?” His voice cracked, it held so much hope and excitement. “You wouldn't rather spend today and tomorrow being lazy?” 

“I get to go see the place where monsters came from and spend time with you? I’d rather that than just about anything.” He smiled watching me turn off my game and snuggle into his side. Loving the way his bones felt pressed against my sweater. 

“Thanks.” he said like something was bugging him 

“Something’s on your mind. What is it?” 

“Nothing.” he looked away. 

“Sans…” he sighed. 

“I guess it might not be nothing. I just feel like I’m being too… Assertive. I just feel like I’m asking for too much too quickly you know? I don’t mean to, I just… Like you. Like a lot, and I like showing you that since you seem to underrate words but I think I make you uncomfortable a little bit.” I swear, this guy is the sweetest thing on the planet. 

“No you’re not being too assertive. I like that you’re asking me to trust you a little bit because honestly if you didn’t, I would hermit in my room and never go anywhere with this and you stop yourself before you do anything too stupid. You’re doing fine, I promise. If you were making me uncomfortable, I would’ve said something.” I reassured him. It was strange (for me at least) for him to check on how I was doing like it wasn’t something about him it was just alien to me. Thanks Sam and my own stupidity for making my life harder. 

“You’re sure?” 

“Hey I like you a lot too. So yeah, you’re not screwing anything up yet.” 

“Yet?” 

“We’re only human.” 

“Actually I’m a monster, but I see where you’re going with that.” 

“I think I’m gonna be the first one to fuck up if anyone is.” 

“We’ll see about that.” 

“Don’t make this a competition. I’ll go get ready and we can go okay?” 

“Okay.” 

"Hey you’re fine. I promise.” I kissed him since I suspected that’s what he was worried about. He responded but let me go before it got too too lengthy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright last one for tonight and I don't really have much to say about any of these just thought I'd get them out there and not procrastinate them any longer. I'm also realizing Alphys and Riley are sorta similar but I've defined Alphys in a different way so they aren't the same character


	16. Previously on Sans' life and new friends that can surprise teleport right into your lap.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Previously on Undertale...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one was a fun one to write... waay fun.

I came out of my room about a half hour later (funny how that worked out) brushing my hair hating the fact that it was thick therefore it got all tangled up in itself. It’s not even like I don’t take care of it. It’s just like a kid. You take care of it and nurture it and it still is a pain in your ass. _Ow. Why???_ I thought to myself as I near ripped out a knot in my hair. Sans had gotten off the couch to come say hi but jumped back a little bit when he saw this little ordeal.

“Stop hurting yourself.” He said carefully. “I like having you not in pain.”

“I kind of have to because if I don’t it gets worse.” I responded trying the spot again this time the brush ran through without getting caught on anything.

“Humans have strange standards.”

“You can say that again.” I grumbled brushing out another knot.

“Can I ask you something?”

“What’s up?” I thought about being a smart ass thanks to my urge to bite something because I. Hate. My. Hair.

“So I know you have shapeshifting powers but are there like… Rules you have to follow?”

“Meaning?”

“Can you break the laws of physics? Like does the law of conservation of matter apply to you?” I paused before answering. This was going to be complicated.

“Yes and no… No because in human form I automatically shift to make day to day life easier. Not into animals or anything just make myself taller by an inch or two to get that thing off the top shelf and that height comes from my weight so I get thinner. But say I was playing limbo or something and needed to make myself shorter I could do that I’d just get a lot wider. But at a certain point my own mass just isn’t going to be able to stay the say, and that’s where yes comes in. Yes pisses off every scientist I’ve ever met. With the help of my tail here I can become as large or as tiny as I want on the condition I shapeshift into an animal of my choice. I’m not Antman. So if someone were to say rip off my tail, for one thing, that would be extremely painful for me and I wouldn’t recommend it, but more importantly I wouldn’t be able to shift beyond my basic adjustments. So I wouldn’t be able to turn into ay animals without being completely useless because I’d be too fat to walk. Or so skinny my body would eat itself alive.” I explained as best as I could.

“Yikes don’t do that. Where does the mass go? Where does it come from?” He questioned. I shrugged.

“We don’t know. That’s what pisses the scientists off. It just seems to vanish. It doesn’t go into the atmosphere or the things around me or anything. I don’t take it from things around me either. We have no idea. It’s just the magic I guess.” The physics police can arrest me later, okay?

“Wow! Cool.” He said like he was in awe of my abilities. I finished brushing the tangles out of my hair.

“Yeah kind of. What about you? You making scientists mad?” He smiled nuzzling me like he was about to make my day.

“Not in the same way but… I do have dragons that I can summon at will.” He definitely just made my day.

“You have dragons?!?!?!?” I exclaimed almost exploding with excitement.

“Yeah. Here hold out your hands.” He took them and made them so they were palms up and that I was ready for a couple pounds more weight. His eye glowed and then a tiny skeletal dragon was sitting in my hands. I stared at it, my jaw dropping

“Oh my god! This is easily the cutest thing I’ve ever seen! I don’t deserve to be in it’s presence.” I said quietly. He smiled and addressed the baby dragon.

“Snap, say hi.” He said quietly and the skeletal creature looked at me and made a teeny tiny yipping noise and I was so excited.

“Oh. My. God. Hi Snap!” I squeaked and it wagged it’s tail and moved into one palm so I could use the other hand to rub the top of its head. It purred. Its boney tail wagging like crazy. “Aren’t you the cutest thing ever?” I purred at it.

“Hey don’t forget about me. I am the one who raises them.” He grumbled and I kissed him.

“I am not worthy.”

“Yes you are. Oh my god it’s not that big of a deal. Stop it.” He laughed as I looked at him like he was insane. “You’re thinking about crying. Please don’t. It’s just a baby animal.”

“Have you seen this little tiny adorable baby dragon?”

“I have.”

“But like…” The tiny dragon sneezed and a tiny burst of energy surrounded it’s face turning it blue because the ash was blue. It shook its head to get rid of the ash. “Oh my god.”

“Riley… Riley no…”

“My life is complete.” He looked at me like he was the tiniest bit distraught.

“What about me?” He asked and when I looked about him confused he elaborated “Do I not cut it for you?” He asked.

“Sans I can think your little friend here is the most adorable thing ever in a animal sort of way. But you’re easily the most adorable thing when it comes to anyone or anything I’ll ever meet.” He blushed a little.

“I meant, do I not make you happy but I guess that works too.” He whispered looking at the ground.

“You do make me happy, silly. You think about these things. You are working really hard to let me feel comfortable around you and I appreciate that and it pays off.” I reassured him.

“If I don’t, let me know and I’ll get out of your hair.” He said scratching where Snap’s ears would be.

“No don’t do that. I like you.” I murmured leaning into his shoulder.

“I like you too. Hence why that’s an option.” He insisted.

“I don’t think I’ll need that anytime soon.”

“That works too.” He purred taking Snap back and the dragon disappeared in a blue ball of fire. He turned and kissed me. “Thanks for doing this. I really do like you. I promise I won’t hurt you like he did.” He had told me all of this before but it still was relaxing to hear it again. “And you know me and promises don’t get along.” He hated making promises. For him it meant putting someone else’s morals over his own. For example, if say he promised to protect someone but the person he was supposed to protect confronted him after going and killing everyone, including the person he made the promise to (drastic I know, but it’s an example. It’s not like it’s actually happened.) Sans would be forced to choose between breaking his promise with the murdered person and giving the murderer exactly what they deserved or breaking his own morals and letting them survive. “That actually happened you know.” He said solemnly jerking me out of my thoughts.

“What did?”

“The mass murder of my friends and family.”

“But they’re all right here around you aren’t they?”

“This time they are.”

“Oh my god this is confusing ‘This time?’ This time what?”

“Oh yeah, sorry I sometimes forget that you don’t know what a reset is. There is a human that let us free from the underground and they were able to save all but one person and let us live up here peacefully. Her name is Frisk and she has the determination like all humans do and she can reset the entire universe back to zero and go through her life over and over again so she can get the “perfect ending” that she wants so badly. Well the only problem with that is that when she does it, occasionally things will change. Usually just little things like scars, hair styles, self-esteem or relationships but upon occasion, we can be entirely different. For example, I remember one where everyone aside from her were jerks and we all legit wanted the world to burn. Another more common one tends to be where everyone’s personality switches with their counterpart. Like when Papyrus is the quiet one and always wears an orange hoodie around and I run around in plate armour being the extrovert. Anyways, sometimes it just affects one person in particular so there was a number of resets that Frisk wasn’t Frisk and instead was a boy known as Chara. He took over the body that they shared and killed everyone over, and over again. Each time I met him at the same place and confronted him even though my, err, crush at the time asked me to promise her that if a human ever came through the underground that I would watch over and protect them. Each time I met Chara in that place I made the choice to break that promise and get revenge for her and my brother’s deaths, and each time he ended up killing me and reset bringing everyone back and doing it again. At some point Frisk was able to override Chara’s control but he was already fighting me. Frisk being Frisk tried to spare me but Papyrus had spared Chara before and Chara killed him anyways so I did the exact same thing to her and she reset after that death and she went through the underground and spared and befriended everyone trying to let us free with her. She befriended everyone except me. I had dealt with too much Chara to dare let myself go anywhere near her. She reset over and over again each time showing me she could in fact stay in control and eventually she told me how it was. Every time she reset she got to the end and faced a demon that was indescribable in strength and in appearance. Each time she defeated it she spared it. Knowing somewhere in her heart that the demon didn’t have to be that way. Every time it told her. “You need to be friends with everyone if you want to save them all.” Every time she was able to cross the barrier and she got what she wanted in the beginning but she wanted to save all the monsters who were trapped below the ground and so she kept resetting and she told me she needed my help if she was going to set all of us free. It took 4 more resets but I’ve always had a knack for being able to see things before they happen, at least in my dreams. (I know it sounds dumb but it’s saved my ass more than once.)  
I had one of these dreams and I saw a Frisk fighting the demon but the demon was a satyr with paws instead of hooves. It looked more like a giant flower thing but more importantly I saw someone, a child, who was supposed to be long dead but here he was and he was crying he was trying to deal with something that no one should have to deal with. He had lost someone he had loved more then anything and… I knew what that felt like. The problem was he died trying to grant this person’s last wish and was brought back in the body of a flower unable to feel love or care about the people around him and he was confused and lost and let that soulless part control him while he tried to make sense of everything that had happened but he wasn’t able to take control back. Frisk could help him, she just needed me to ally with her at least temporarily to do it. I finally did. Coming to save her from the soulless monster when she needed it with everyone else. Everyone lost their souls for it however. The monster took everyone’s souls and became the demon we called the “God of Hyperdeath” and fought Frisk in this form but she wouldn’t fight back she kept sparing him and every time she died, her soul refused to shatter. He realized he couldn’t beat her by himself and used a modified version of my Gaster Blasters and tried to kill her but she still didn’t fall. He, in a confused rage, asked why “Chara” was not letting him win and in frustration he reverted into his Angel of Death form and continued fighting her and she was unable to struggle against him so she chose to save something else. She chose to save her friends first instead of herself. As souls we were lost and confused we had no memories just a general gist of what our lives had been about. She was able to remind us. She force fed us these memories again and brought us back to consciousness. We all lended our strength to her and she reached out the the angel and was able to save him too. Asreil was so confused as his power crumbled away and he used the last burst of power to bring her within a fraction of death but we were SO close, and with the help of our souls she was able to summon the strength to still hold on. The prince, Asreil returned to his child humanoid goat form and he used our souls to destroy the barrier before returning them to us. He only had the strength to stay in this form for an hour or two at most. Frisk hunted him down and convinced him to go say goodbye to his parents at least before he died again. He thanked us all individually for our help. That kid has got to be the bravest person I have ever met. He faced his death without batting an eye. He asked me to go with him to where his final resting place would be. He said that he didn’t know me very well but he remembered our fights before and that I was strong and too used to the sight of death and maybe I could keep him from being scared. I reluctantly agreed and he brought me to the entrance to the underground and chose a flower bed and he just stood there… I wish I could’ve done something about it. I watched a 15 year old kid die in front of me and I couldn’t do a damn thing... He told me things would get better for me once I got to the surface and that I would find happiness in the most unlikely of places... and the tops of his ears started shaking so fast I couldn’t see them becoming dust… I just wish… Sometimes I wish I didn’t care as much as I do… I wish I could’ve just not sacrificed everything I had so Papyrus would live on sometimes I wish I could’ve just said no to Frisk… Or just watched Asriel die and not cared…” I stopped him.

“No you don’t wish that… You just… Wished that things would go your way. You’ve been through so much and seen so many more morbid things than anyone ever deserves but you staked your claim of time in the world and are not about to give up any of that time.” I soothed I suspected this was just the tip of the iceberg and that Sans’ dad was more haunting to him then he let on. He took a deep breath and relaxed a little.

“Yeah you’re right. So what did you think?” I paused to think about my answer. That was a story if I’ve ever heard one.

“So is the Chara Asreil was calling out for the same as the Chara who killed you and your friends repeatedly?”

“Chara’s soul stole the body that Frisk’s soul resides in currently so yeah same person. Chara was not a… happy person.”

“Okay so if Chara is in charge of the body, it’s male, and if Frisk is in control it’s female?”

“Yup.”

“Right. So flower demon, satyr demon, evil flower, and goat kid are all the same person?”

“As far as I know.”

“You said you fought him before?”

“Flower demon had determination and could reset so he did more than one genocide run. I kicked his ass every time.”

“Nice. But why can’t I reset everything?”

“Well before we were locked underground in the first place we fought a war with the humans. The humans realized individuals in its species would die and come back and they found that if they destroyed the body beyond return the person would stay dead. I will spare you of what they did to them. But humankind hunted down and obliterated any human with this “magical monster power”. Frisk just got lucky and was born centuries after their leaders met their deaths at the hands of my family.”

“It just keeps going doesn’t it?”

“The odds were never in my favor.” I fought a laugh because it wasn’t the time.

“You’re so bad. Oh my god. It’s not the Hunger Games.” I don’t even know if he knew what that quote was from but still it was amazing because it was pretty accurate. “Hey it’ll get better I promise it will. You’re not buying it I know. Come here.” I attempted to comfort him with words but ended up hugging him instead. His claws gripped my sweater tightly and he nuzzled into my shoulder There you go. It’ll be okay. It was one of those hugs where one person just wants to hold on forever and the other is okay with becoming a skeleton for that person if it made them feel a little bit better. Several minutes passed before his grip on my sides relaxed and he pulled himself away.

“Sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry. You’ve been strong you’re entire life it sounds like and now maybe you don’t have to be strong all the time.”

“I guess but I hate to burden you with my own fucked up family and my own fucked up problems.”

“Don’t worry about me. My time will come but I want you to feel like you can A. Talk to me about your fucked up problems and B. If there’s shit going on, I’d like know because if there’s anything I can do to help I will in a heartbeat and if I can’t help but there’s going to be change in your life, I’d like to know so I can make sure you’re doing alright.” I said. I wasn’t lying. If he was struggling with something I wanted to help him as much as I could no matter what that meant I had to do. He looked at the ground. Shuffling his half tied shoes on the floor.

“Thank you. Just remember that I’m here for you too. But I think the roots of this evil go deeper than even I can see.”

“Then maybe you need someone else to help you scout out the evil for you so you can find your freedom.”

“You think you could do that?”

“I don’t know for sure but I sure as hell am gonna try. If you’ll let me.” He nodded.

“I hope you realize it’s not going to be easy. I’m not the most… collected person when I’m having a bad day.”

“Neither am I. We’ll work through it together okay?” He nodded and hugged me again. When he let go he started laughing I gave him a confused look.

“I like how we set out to go take a walk in the underground but we ended up watching Snap and talking about our problems.” He giggled. It was pretty funny I guess. But I suspected he really wasn’t sleeping too good and was tired therefore making things 20 times funnier than they would be otherwise. He collected himself. “Okay but seriously though ready to get going?”

“Are we driving or are you teleporting?”

“It’ll be easier if I teleport us.”

“Cool. Then yes.”

“Okay can I ask you to do something for me?”

“Yeah?”

“While we’re there I need you to promise me that you won’t let me run away. I’m gonna try to. I can tell you that now but I need you to not let me. I trust you.”

“Why are you doing this if you want to run from it?”

“Because I know that you’d think it’s the coolest place ever and need to learn to face this fear I have horrible memories of that place but I need to be able to put that behind me. Do you know what I’m saying?”

“Yeah but why are you bringing me to an event that will show all your weakness to me? Do you trust me with that already? I’m not saying I’m not happy to help but… Maybe Papyrus would be a better choice?”

“No. I need someone who I can cling to for my life who will understand why I’m doing it and why I have to forced through those tunnels and that person was always going to be you.”

“If you’re sure.”

“I am.”

“You are going through that cave if it’s the last thing I do.”

“Thank you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah Frisk reset a bunch of times which of course made Sans mad at her and it probably helped contribute to his stubbornness but it's better than a genocide run! Also Snap was super fun to write in there that's all I can say about that.


	17. We're off to see the underground!! With some panic attacks!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The pair start off through the underground and Sans has a bit of a panic attack.

In a flash of blue light we were standing near a cliff edge that dropped into a forest. The sun was hanging above our heads right now but the environment allowed me to take a guess that at sunrise this place would be a beautiful first sight of the planet that looked pretty on the surface. Behind us was a gaping maw into darkness which I assumed had been the barrier before. I started towards it, but Sans started to get reluctant hanging back a little.

I turned to him, “Sans, are you alright?”

He didn’t answer immediately staring at the void in the wall, his eyes wide in fear and awe. He reached for my hand and gripped it tightly pressing against my side. “It’s just a hole in the rocks. What’s so scary about it?” I asked twining my fingers with his.

“I-I-I… Let’s keep going. Sorry it’s just that… I haven’t been back here since I left and… A lot of memories just came back.” He stammered.

 _I’m a dumbass. Of course this is the entrance to memory lane for him. He doesn’t want to walk down it anymore then I do with my own memories, especially since he has few fond memories of this place._ I gently encouraged him to the wall.

“Do you want them to come back or do you want to be in your head as little as possible?”

“Please.. Please don’t let them come back.” He whimpered. He was shaking.

“Okay I can’t guarantee this will work but it helps me, so we’ll try it. Reality check. Can you describe what the wall feels like to you?” I offered signalling to the wall. He reached out and brushed the slightly crumbly wall with a hand rubbing the red dust off his fingers.

“It’s sandy. Grainy. At least the top layer is. The rest of the mountain is made up of clay but there is a couple layers of sediments too.” He stated with perfect accuracy.

“Wow. Good job. How bout you describe to me what I’m wearing.” He glanced me over and closed his eyes to recite it. While his eyes were closed, I began to lead him into the cave.

“You’re wearing the charcoal black hoodie that had the crest of your favorite superhero, Leopard, on it that you got at a theme park… 6 years ago I wanna say? You have a pink stain on it from when a kid stuck your hair to your sweater with a piece of gum because they were assholes. Then you’re wearing your gray shirt that says “Sarcasm: The body’s natural defense against stupidity.” That you got for your 18th birthday that technically doesn’t fit you anymore but you wear a sweater most of the time so you don’t care if it shows the tiniest bit of your stomach, even though you always get super self conscious when you can see any part of your body more than your hands. I have never understood it. You were always the prettiest thing I’ve ever seen. I’m pretty sure you’re rolling your eyes at me but blushing a super pretty shade of pinkish red.”

“ You’re good at this.” I said he had even recalled things I had mentioned offhandedly like the gum stain I completely forgot about it but he remembered it made me feel loved or at least liked and I think that I liked that feeling. I had almost reached the entrance to the cave.

“Well hold on to your butt because I’m not done.”

“My butt?”

“I just said something okay?” I couldn’t stop myself from laughing.

“You’re a well adjusted adult aren’tcha?”

“We’ll call it that.” He giggled “Anyways you’re wearing the only pair of gray sweats you have and you thought they were the coolest when we went to the mall with Rob to see if you two couldn’t find anything interesting “window shopping” you two called it. I tagged along.”

“I still don’t know why you came along.”

“It’s entirely possible that I had a tiny bit of a crush on you.”

“Tiny? As in...?”

“Hehehehehehe.”

“Right.” I somehow anticipated this answer.

“Not to say I don’t still have a giant crush on you, but just then I had no clue what I was doing with it.” _Same, dude._ “Somehow this doesn’t surprise me.”

“Me still having a giant crush on you or me not having a clue what to do with my emotions?”

“I mean you are currently dating me so I would assume you at least had a bit of a crush on me. But I was talking about the emotions.”

“Do we ever really know what to do with them?” He asked as we passed under the teeth of the opening to the underground.

“You’re asking me like I have any idea.”

“You might.”

“No idea what you’re getting at here.”

“I mean it just seems like the people with the worst experiences have the most knowledge about the better side of their experiences.” I paused. He wasn’t wrong.

“I think that if we ever knew what to do with those emotions I think that there would be a lot less of the kind of relationships that turned out like Sam. Or ended in divorce and rip the kids’ lives apart because the parents are too selfish to maybe at least try to get along for the kids sake. But I also think that if we knew what to do with them we would never take risks with people.”

“Says the person who had an 8 year period of time where they wouldn’t even risking having a crush on anybody.”

“Says the guy who is currently holding my hand and squeezing it so hard that I’ve started losing feeling in it.”

“I’ll shut my mouth now.”

“Eh that’s not necessary. I like your voice but I’m just saying that I took an eight year break from risks and then took a giant leap of faith for you.”

“Well thanks. I keep saying that but really I’m excited that I get to try and prove that Sam was a one-of-a-kind-asshole and that there can be good relationships too.”

“I appreciate the effort.” I said my eyes adjusting to the darkness of the hallway.

“Yeah well before I over think the sudden breeze (as if we were in a cave?) I’m gonna keep talking about you so. Here we go.” I braced myself for some crazy observation that not even I had noticed and he started again. “I remember you had managed to drag us into a little clothes store and Rob was extremely bored by the thing but I on the other hand liked seeing how colors other than black and blue looked on you. Even if it was just you passing by a yellow shirt I liked imagining what you would look like in it. I remember I had been mentally arranging a set of colors that I really liked on you because I’m just the tiniest bit creepy in that way but immediately scrapped my outfit idea when I heard you almost fangirl over those sweats you’re wearing and--”

“Wait wait sorry I don’t mean to interrupt but I gotta ask. You were picking out clothes that you thought I’d look good in?”

“Yeah. I think a couple of my choices would’ve gotten me killed for even eyeing them. Not because they were super “look at my butt!!!” but mostly cuz they were things that you despise.”

“I swear to god if you were looking at the dresses.”

“I might’ve found a few.”

“You know there’s no way in hell you’re getting me in one of those abominations right?”

“I’d like to just to see what it looked like.”

“You’ll be waiting a while for that then.”

“I’m alright with that.”

“Appreciated. Anyways continue.”

“So I at first thought they looked a little strange with the rest of your wardrobe simply because the have the little patterns sewn into them when you normal hated that but you were super into them and even picked a shirt that matched and you had to get it and then you tripped over your own shoes and was sent tumbling into that ladder…”

“I thought we agreed that that didn’t happen.”

“Hmm you wish it didn’t.”

“You jerk!” I teased as the cavern opened up around us into a gray room with a purple archway over the entryway we came from. In the middle of the widest part of the room there was a white patch in the earth that looked suspiciously like a spotlight but when I glanced around I saw no light source. “Sans do you want to open your eyes now?” He slowly looked up and his sockets opened and he immediately froze.

“Why is it exactly how I remembered it?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this was more of a light-hearted one that I did to kinda back up Sans' previous statement that he really liked her. That and he notices almost everything so that's that.  
> Yes Sans is only going to get more vulnerable from here because I love making my characters suffer.


	18. Explanations!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans has to do some serious explanation on how things were before the monsters were set free from the underground.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I haven't uploaded in a little bit so here we go.

“Did you expect it to be different?” I asked tilting my head slightly.

“I sort of expected to move down here and make it more homey for them but it’s untouched. No human except Frisk has touched it.”

“So I should watch my step?”

“No you were born here even if you don’t remember it. You’re simply returning home and the cave is welcoming you back.”

“How do you know?”

“Listen.” I shut up for a second and I heard a very soft music box that played a relaxing tune and he was right the way the dust had settled on the floor seemed natural like I had been raised under the ground like everyone else.

“Sans why is there music? Who’s making it?”

“The underground had a direct connection with the souls of the monsters who inhabited it. Monster souls have their own system of combat that’s different than humans. When I told Papyrus not to fight you I wasn’t talking about a fist fight but a monster fight where it’s turned based and our souls call upon their inner strength therefore making our very essence sing with this power. The underground responded to that and developed an individual tune for certain circumstances and in certain places. It’s hard to explain… You just kind of go deaf to it eventually until you move to where the humans have changed the planet so much from when they were given it it’s hard to find a place where you can really hear it. Humans tend to find those areas peaceful but they can never understand what it feels like. It’s like when you were about 6 and you realized you have been living in a place that literally sings to you when you were feeling down. They didn’t ever develop the ability to hear these little tunes but sometimes their imagination can put the wind rustling in the trees and the river rushing almost make a song. They do and they're about as close as they're getting. Mixes and people like Frisk can hear it but otherwise the rest of the planet misses out.” He explained excitedly.

“I had no idea that you were this passionate about a music box.” I said thinking a little bit about it.

“You know how the scent of pine needles or rain sends you back to a time when things were just...easier? That’s what that’s like for me.”

“I see. So did anything special happen here?” I asked as we walked into the middle of the spotlight.

“This is where we woke Frisk up after she fought prince Asriel and where the prince came to say his final goodbyes. Frisk always said this room had the sense of anticipation in it. I never understood, but she says it was the moment she thought she would have to reset again to get us free because King Asgore wouldn't let her spare him. Queen Toriel stepped in and started the series of events that led to Frisk’s fight with Prince Asriel.”

“So you’re just gonna call them Prince Asriel, King Asgore, and Queen Toriel any time you say anything about them now?” I asked.

“Oh am I doing that again? Sorry I just have of habit of addressing them by their titles when I’m down here. I’ll work on it.”

“I’m not saying it’s a bad thing. They are technically your monarchs so they would be addressed like that. I’m just asking.”

“I’ll try not to because they always asked us not to, but we did anyways.”

“Okay whatever works for you in here, works for me.” I said and he nodded and seemed to remember something and ran into the next room. “Hold on. I didn’t sign up for the 100 meter dash!” I called after him, rushing to keep up. We tumbled into a beautiful valley of golden flowers with two thrones in the middle of the room. The thrones were ornate and highly decorated both being the same golden color as the flowers the surrounded by them on all sides. The thrones had purple cushions and were only distinguishable from the floor by the lack of flowers on the orange and yellow tiles they rested on. “Woah.” The room was just generally a golden color with the windows sparkling with golden borders even though the walls were a much duller yellow. Though I did notice that on the edges of the flowerbeds there was grass or something and that the roof had holes in it that let real sunlight to filter in through the holes. Sans took off towards the flower “Wait! Sans!” I called to him and he paused turning to me.

“Come on! The flower’s can support our weight, watch.” He stepped out onto the nearest flower and I flinched expecting it to crunch under him but it didn’t. It lifted him a tiny bit higher than it had been before and he jumped from flower to flower running around to the front of the thrones. “Asgore! Asgore! As..gore…” He paused and he looked really degected. I hesitantly put my weight on a flower and sure enough it lifted me and I pretty quickly got used to jumping from flower to flower and hopped over to him and saw why he looked so disappointed he had been excited to say hi to and old friend who hadn’t been there. Sans couldn’t seem to believe it. “He’s not here…” He whispered. I wasn’t sure what he was expecting if Asgore really had been king he must’ve had something to be doing rather than sitting in an empty throne room. Sans looked like his heart had been ripped apart spat out and then thrown in a blender. He stared at the empty thrones for a long time before turning away and walking over the flowers and into the next hall. This one was long and heavily shadowed with towering columns that were placed every foot or so. I expected for Sans to make some comment about this hall which he seemed extremely familiar with, slipping from shadow to shadow but the skeletal monster stayed silent. I followed, confused. I walked beside him as we crossed over a huge skybridge that when my eyes adjusted to the void around it I realized that in this void was an abandoned city, the pale outlines of what was a bustling capital was now a ghost town. Better opportunities had come up for the residents of this city and they left. Sans didn’t glance sideways at it. He just walked his hands in his pockets and staring straight ahead, his gaze hazed like he was deep in thought.

“Sans..?” I said quietly when we were halfway over this several mile long bridge he snapped out of his thoughts

“What is it Riley?” He asked softly.

“Is something wrong?” I was genuinely concerned. He had been so innocent and free for a few fleeting moments there but he had crashed back down and hit hard.

“No nothing's wrong… Just coming to some realizations.”

“Like what?”

“I’m beginning to realize that I hoped that all my friends would just magically be where they had been my whole life and I know that they all went their separate ways and lived their own lives I just hoped… That by coincidence everyone would be here. Even though I haven’t seen Asgore in years, I still got my hopes up and then had them obliterated by the truth. I’m beginning to realize that when we went our separate ways after the barrier was opened might very well have been the last time I will ever get to talk with them.” He admitted and it started to fall into place. I had had that kind of realization before when Rob first graduated I was so sure I was never going to be able to talk to him again. But thanks to modern technology we had kept in contact.

“Can you not still text them? Talk to them over technology?” I offered and he shook his head.

“Most of us didn’t adjust too well to modern devices they were designed for humans not monster with paws, claws, 8 arms, no arms. They just weren’t useful when it came to cross-species interactions. Me and Papyrus picked up on it thanks to our human build but we’re pretty much the only ones aside from two others who live on the other side of town of us but have their own lives going on.”

“Call them! Text them! Do something! Let them know that you still want to be friends with them. Ask Mettaton to see if he doesn’t have the ability to contact everyone else! Your friends don’t have to go away when distance separates you! Long distance friendships are very much a thing! Me and Rob were friends who stayed that way for 8 years before we got to see each other in person again. Your freedom doesn’t mean you have to break every bond you fought so hard to create!” I told him and the tiniest smile crept up his face.

“You know what? That might actually be possible… I could see if Mettaton had the ability to communicate with them and tell me how to get in contact with them… Riley you’re a genius!” His face slowly got more and more hopeful until he had a full on grin stretching across his face. He then went quiet again but it was a much more happy, relaxed silence. Eventually we reached the end of the sky bridge and he lead us to the left and turned right into a little overgrown section.

“Dead end.”

“No. Just overgrown.” He took a hand out of his pocket and pointed a small amount of energy at the vines on the wall. He burned through it’s center revealing a crease that was the meeting point of two doors. Seeing what he was doing I shifted my hands into anteater claws (They rip up termite nests so I guess it’s kind of the same thing) and started ripping at the clusters of roots in the corners and he burned off the ever spanning mass of the roots. We easily spent an hour on yard work before the elevator and it’s call panel were usable. The call panel didn’t work since the roots were holding the doors together. I nudged Sans aside.

“I got this.” I smiled cracking my knuckles after I shifted them into human hands again.

“Have at it.” I put my hands on the seams of the door and started pushing outwards “Ummm while I’m impressed with the amount of muscles you’re showing off right now I don’t think you’re going to be able to pry that open with your bare hands.”

“Maybe not but my bear hands will.” I grunted and that muscle that I had just been showing off shifted into huge black paws my hands become huge black bear claws and I felt the roots between my claws and snarled in pain as they pressed uncomfortably into my fur. I growled and put a last push of strength on it and I heard the roots snap and the doors flew open revealing an elevator with a button panel on the back wall rather than the side wall for some reason.

“Wow that’s cool.” He commented as I shifted my tired muscles back.

“Thank you. Thank you very much.” I said letting him in first knowing that the second he crossed the elevators threshold he was probably going to have another panic attack. Sure enough me standing in the doorway was the only reason he didn’t go bolting out of the elevator again. I nuzzled him affectionately as he pleaded with me to let him pass. “Go on. You know this place better than I do go make it so this rust bucket works.” I urged.

“No. Please… Don’t make me face this. I don’t want to have to face my fears. I don’t want… I don’t want to face my past. Please…”

“Sorry sweetie but you gotta do it.” I have no idea where “sweetie” came from okay? Right now I really didn’t care I just felt bad that he was standing there his hands pressed into my belly trying desperately to get away from his own brain but I kept my promise to him and didn’t let him go any farther. I shifted my arm into a lion's paw and used it to lock him to the opposite wall while I decided which button to click. There were only two other buttons besides the one that said “New home.” One said “Stage.” and the other simply had the letters “TL” hastily scribbled onto it. He struggled fiercely against the paw that held him to the wall by his spine but wasn’t able to break my grip. “Sans what does “TL” stand for?”

“I-it stands for… I- I won’t tell you! Please just let me go!” He stammered he thought about it but wanted his freedom.

“Do you want me to press it and we’ll find out what it does?”

“No, no, no, no, no, no. Please no.”

“Then what does it mean?” _I’m so sorry I’m doing this to you. I promise I only do this because you’ll regret it if you chicken out. I’m sorry._

“... it stands for true lab…”

“What is the true lab?”

“Where Gaster did all of his experiments on me. Also where a very dangerous amalgamate lives right now.” I was so so close to hitting the “TL” button so he was forced to deal with his fears head on but I stopped when my finger was just touching the bubble about to put weight on it. The look on his face was unbearable it was one of just pure terror and he was silently begging me to do anything but that. I sighed and hit the “Stage” button instead and let Sans go when the doors was half closed. He immediately tried to fly through the door but smashed into and dented a closed metal door. He hopelessly smashed a claw into the door dragging his fingertips down it a little bit making dark claw marks along the door. But he closed his fist and let gravity drop his fist to the floor. He hid his face his other arm that he had been leaning into and just started to cry. I carefully crept over to him. Sitting in front of him he glanced at me his eyes full of pain.

“I’m sorry. I really am.” I murmured.

“I know. This isn’t your fault. I just… Some part of me knows that I need to do this and it won’t let me use my teleportation to run away. But I don’t want to. I’m so scared Riley.” He said and I took his grounded hand and opened it and curled my hand around his own. His erratic breathing steadied and he was able to stop crying. “Thank you. For making me do this. I don’t know what I’d do without you here.”

“Live on I suppose.”

“I never would’ve made it this far. Oh and thank you… For not sending us to the True Lab. I think I need a little bit more time before I dare try and go there again.” He was shaking. I suspected that it was caused by terror more than cold.

“I’d like you to at least try. I think you’ll regret it if you don’t.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay a note about this one,  
> No Riley was not being a jerk to Sans... well that's not entirely true. She was being a bit of a jerk and put his wish at that moment aside for his ultimate goal.  
> Yeah that's all I got for this one. There is one more thing I could say about Riley's choices but... eh I trust you can figure it out.


	19. Let's not fall off cliffs yeah?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans takes Riley on a mad print across CORE.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last one for today but maybe we'll get another one later this week but no promises since I'm running show this week so I might upload it at some ungodly hour of night if I upload it this week.

We spent the next couple minutes helping Sans collect himself. He somehow ended up with his head in my lap and watching me unscrewify his sweater because it was annoying me. He sure wasn’t making it easy though with one hand always gripping one of mine at all times and his other hand trying to get all my hair out from being tucked into my sweater. This was easily the longest elevator trip I’ve ever experienced. We weren’t really saying a whole lot just letting out thoughts say more than we ourselves did but about 5 minutes into the decent he asked a very simple question.

“I’m insane aren’t I?” I lied, that wasn’t a simple question. I thought about my answer putting my hands on his cheek bones.

“No. You’re conflicted. The part of you that knows what it needs to do is making it so you don’t use your magic to get away. But there is a part of you that doesn’t want you to suffer through all of the sacrifices that you made over again. It’s totally normal. I just think that you are still coming to terms with what happened as we go on this journey. I hope that you find the courage to put your ghosts to rest.” I said a little indirectly but not sure what else to say.

“Yeah but I’m amazed by what you’ve been willing to do for me.”

“I told you I’d help you as best as I could.”

“Yeah but I haven’t even told you what exactly happened between me and Gaster and…”

“I don’t need you too. When you’re ready, I know you’ll tell me. I trust you to know when the time is right.” I interrupted and he smiled.

“You told me once that you wouldn’t be able to trust anyone in a romantic way anymore because of someone who betrayed your trust and hurt you with it. Yet here you are. Telling me you trust me to know when I’m ready to lay how fucked up I am on you.”

“How is that romantic?”

“I mean this is going to affect me for the rest of my life so this’ll come up again. Probably at the most inappropriate of times… So it’s romantic because you’re being super patient with this bull shit. Thanks.”

“You’re welcome. I don’t doubt your patience is going to be tested by my severe paranoia and trust issues at some point.”

“With you, my patience is limitless.” Yup that definitely made me blush a little bit and by a little bit I mean hahahahaha. His grin made me happy though. I let my hands move to the space on my lap that he wasn’t stealing. We were quiet for a little bit longer it’s got to have been at least 10 minutes now right? I checked my phone. It’d been 15.

“Sans how long is this elevator?”

“Long enough for me to overthink this again.” The look of panic had returned and his body had gone rigid again. I took his hands in my own not really sure if it would help but I guess it did. I did notice that elevator went even more painstakingly slow and then it stopped. Sans let go of my hands and flipped over half stumbling towards the back wall. _If you’re starting a running on all fours race you’re gonna lose._ I sprung at him closing the distance in a single bound and I smashed him aside sending him sprawling towards the opening door. I had been careful not to hurt him just stun him a little bit. I walked over to him and helped him to his feet and he stood shakily, “Thanks for riding with us today. I’m going home.”

“No. No you’re not. Come on.” I took his hand and led him into a pale blue room that had pale glowing lights in the walls and a reddish pink stripe running through the middle of the wall horizontally. He took each step hesitantly glancing around like the walls were going to enclose on him. We turned the corner and there was a dark purple heart shaped room with lights that replaced the stripe in the previous hallway. It also had another hallway that had another silver door across from us. This room seemed to be a comfort zone for Sans. “What is this place?” I asked.

“Well we’re currently in CORE, my dad’s construction, that is the powerhouse for the entire underground. It’s fueled by lava and it’s far from perfect but it’s done it’s job. The room we’re in currently is where Mettaton and Frisk had their battle.” He offered.

“This doesn’t look like a stage to me.”

“This is a platform it goes up and onto the stage.”

“More elevators?”

“Lots more.”

“Great. Just great.”

“Don’t like elevators?”

“Just get a little dizzy, also you seem to hate them as much as I do.”

“It’s not the elevators I fear. It’s the destination.”

“Pretend you’re going to a dentist's appointment.”

“Why would I disappoint myself like that?”

“I’m just trying to help.”

“I appreciate the effort but I don’t know how to stop the panicking.”

“We’ll work on it.” By now we had crossed the room and another silver door opened for us revealing a blindingly bright space and the temperature increased by a million degrees and Sans froze again. There was a platform that was designed the same way as the hallway before the stage had been and I tried to tug him out onto it but he was stuck to the platform like a rock. I sighed and turned to him. “I swear to God, if you don’t walk onto this platform, I will drag you back to that elevator and send us to the True Lab. Be brave.” I growled needing him to cooperate a little bit. He flinched. I honest to God hated threatening him but I knew I needed to keep him moving. He hesitantly stepped out onto the platform slowly putting his weight on it like he thought it was going to fall out from under him. After he took the first step out onto the barred off bridge he seemed to just want to cross it as quickly as he was capable of without falling off. Okay he was moving fast enough that he might be risking falling over the edge. We ran through the twisting hallways I staying behind a couple inches to one give him a little bit of space and also so I didn’t make a wrong turn. The hallways extended endlessly it seemed with crossroads that stretched out in all four directions every couple inches. Straightforward until you hit the first intersection head south until you reach the end of the platform. Take a right. Head south again at the intersection. Make an immediate right on a completely open and unbarred platform. Keep going straight even though you could turn left. Cross a narrow glass platform. Slow down! Don’t fall over the edge! Take a left. I skidded to a halt behind him when we reached another elevator. Sans hit the down call button with a closed fist. Not saying anything as the elevator dinged it’s arrival. He walked in making sure I was keeping up alright. I climbed in with him trying to catch my breath a little bit. Taking off my sweater and trying it around my waist. I ignored the tiny patch of exposed belly not really having time or option to be worried about my appearance just now. This elevator was a lot shorter than the last one. It opened onto a long narrow platform. The platform was unbarred and looking down made my stomach spring to my throat. Sans saw my fear of falling and took my hand guiding me over the bridge not asking why I was scared of falling when I could shift, just helping me across it. He pushed open a glass door on the other side of the bridge into a well lit hotel lobby.

“Do we want to get food here or wait until we get to Snowdin?”

“What’s at Snowdin?.”

“Another Grillby’s that’s run by his daughter.”

“Is the food as great?”

“As far as I’m aware, my adopted sister does a great job, even in comparison with her predecessor.”

“Adopted?”

“After my mom died, I spent a lot of time with Grillby’s family. They were able to keep Papyrus safe if I needed them to and they always offered me a safe place to stay if I needed to. So Kass and I became like siblings and were raised together almost.”

“So your adopted dad is someone who runs a bar? That you met at a bar?”

“Actually it was Kass who introduced me to Grill.”

“You shorten everybody’s names don’t ya?”

“What?”

“Kass? Short for Kassandra? Grill for Grillby? Pap for Papyrus?”

“Oh yeah, huh. How’d you guess her full name?”

“It could’ve been Kathrine, or Kassidy or any number of names I was just naming one off the top of my head.”

“Lucky guess but seriously are you getting hungry?”

“I’m alright for a while.” He eyed me. “Notice that we were just running through a heat generating place that was hot enough for me to take off my sweater. I don’t get hot usually but when I do my stomach doesn’t like taking anything.” He shrugged.

“Alright then, just know it’s a couple days travel to get to Snowdin.”

“A couple days? You know that we have life to attend tomorrow.”

“Monster days pass a lot faster than human days. Three monster days is equal to about an hour and a half of human days.”

“How does that work?”

“We don’t have sunrise or sunset or anything we just kind of do and the magic of this place makes it feel like it’s a been a full day even though it really hasn’t.”

“Weird.”

“Takes a little getting used to.”

“I bet.” He was letting me recover from our run since it was air conditioned in here and it was COLD. I started to put on my sweater again but he stopped me.

“We're going to be travelling through Hotland once we’re ready to go and it’s going to be hotter than hell so I’d hold off if I were you.” He explained.

“I don’t see you going sweaterless.”

“I also don’t feel temperature as much as you do.”

“Damn you not having the same number of nerves.” I grumbled and looked around there were monster of all kinds walking around. There were a couple humans too but not too many. There was a fountain in the middle of the room that was facing the front doors and away from us but it looked like a cube that was standing on a wheel and it had it hands up and was spitting its water onto the carpet next to it instead of into the fountain. There was a closed set of glass doors that said “MTT” with a picture of a burger at the end of the words. There was also what looked like a reception desk. There were two halls the spanned out. One went into what looked like a restaurant the other had doors along the wall. One of the monsters that passed was a cat like guy and his eyes definitely were pinned on me. He looked young, 20 at most and he also looked super embarrassed when I caught him looking. Hinting at maybe a little bit of inexperience with this whole life thing. But he smiled a little bit before he hurried along into the MTT place.

“Ready to get going?” Sans asked and I nodded he walked towards the front door and I followed preparing for the next part of the journey.


	20. Ginormous soul eating muffins served fresh out of the oven!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Sans and Riley find themselves head to head with Muffet herself

He opened the glass door and I suddenly realized what he meant by hotter than hell, it was dizzying. We stepped out into the heat and I overheated almost immediately.

“You alright?” He asked when I suddenly was super glad I hadn’t just eaten anything.

“Yeah, yeah let’s just get the hell out of here.”

“Okay if we need to stop let me know.” He said and I nodded he paused to make sure I was alright before he dared take the lead. _Wait. If a monster day is an hour and a half how old does that make Sans?_

“Um, -Sans?” He stopped

“What’s up?” he waited for me to catch up

“We can keep walking but just out of curiosity how long is a monster year?”

“It’s the same length as a human year.” He said starting to descend a rust colored staircase

“Like is it 365 monster days or human days?”

“Human days.”

“So monsters age normally?”

“Yeah I’m 27.”

“So how do birthdays and things work?”

“Lose translation. We have the day in our records in monster days and can do some math to figure out when that would fall in the human world. It’s something that’s calculated before we settle anywhere on the surface for legal reasons.”

“So it’s not exact?”

“The days are usually accurate or within the week when they're not spot on. For example Papyrus’ birthday is considered to be on September 17th but it’s entirely possible that it’s actually or September 16th 17th or 18th.”

“And yours?”

“March 22nd.”

“Oh cool, so it could be on the 21st the 22nd or the 23rd?”

“Yes but my dad was getting super into human dates vs. Monster ones so he specifically put mine as the 22nd he did the math and checked it at least 6 times so I won’t argue it.”

“Six seems excessive.”

“My dad was a little bit of a perfectionist.” By now we had walked into a castle courtyard that had stairs up to a balcony. I could see the stars in the night sky here were hung from the ceiling. _It’s a set._ Well now I HAD to look at the handiwork I approached the bottom of the staircase. There was a tiny indention through them that was maybe where a wheel slid down. It would explain how Mettaton was able to get down them during “Undertale the musical,” when he was basically a computer with arms that rolled around and performed. He later was given a *new* humanoid body that we called Mettaton EX but we just referred to him as Mettaton still. But at the time of this scene, he hadn’t had legs so much as a single wheel so this would explain. The set as a whole really wasn’t that stable. It barely had enough supports to stand up on its own let alone hold a several thousand pound block of metal. I put a foot on the side of the wall and pressed some weight into it. It didn’t budge. _How in the...?_ I looked around a bit more but didn’t see anything that could be holding it up. It wasn’t too long before I got irritated at the thing and gave up out of frustration and confusion.

Sans had been exceptionally patient with this watching me scurry around the structure. He hadn’t really been able to tell me anything about how it worked. He was a comedian, not a technician. (Actors think they know everything, the over cocky bastards… Well, that’s not true not all of them do that… To any actors out there I’m sorry for that but please educate yourself about the things going on around you if you haven’t already. We technicians appreciate you not trying to hammer a screw into a piece of valuable wood.) When I sighed in defeat and went over to rejoin him. He just had the tiniest bit of a smile creeping over his mouth.

“What are you thinking?” I said slurring my words the tiniest bit to exaggerate my concerned confusion about his expression

“Hmm? Oh just thinking that watching you nerd out over a block of wood carved to look like a castle is the most adorable thing ever.” I blushed a little looking at the ground so I didn’t have to make eye contact with him.

“It’s more than a block of wood to me,” I said shyly

“That’s because you’ve spent your whole life learning about the life behind them. It’s adorable to hear about it but it’s in a whole other league when you see it in action.” He explained.

“Sure.”

“It is.”

“I’m not saying it’s not.”

“Not out loud, but you’re thinking it.”

“Get out of my head!”

“I’m not scanning your thoughts. You just have a habit of not believing it and the face you make when you’re not buying is pretty distinct.”

“You notice everything,” I grumbled he wasn’t going to let me win, was he? He shrugged.

“Only cuz I like ya.”

“Goddamn it! Stop it with the cute things. I don’t know if you can see the fact that I’m blushing like I just got caught hooking up with someone and the person who caught me was my mother!” He only grinned wickedly

“What if that’s the point?”

“To have my mother catch me hooking up with someone?”

“No silly. To have you blushing like she did.”

“Oh my god!”

“What can I say you’re cute when you just live in general.”

“I swear to god if you don’t shut your mouth for two minutes…”

“What are you gonna do? Throw me into the oddly stable building?”

“I mean… I was gonna say that I could turn the tables on you but yeah I could use this place to my advantage if I wanted to.”

“Oh, and what were you going to say?”

“Probably just something about how last night you kept using my name for the blanks in those Madlib games.” he shrugged

“Your argument is invalid because you used my name all night too.”

“Damnit.”

“Try again.”

“Or how bout the other day when you thought you could back out of confessing to me so I had to chase you down before we could start to have that talk.” his eyes plummeted to the ground. There we go.

“I was nervous okay?”

“I was too, but I still did it.” I pointed out as we entered a dark room it had spider webs everywhere. It was oddly air conditioned here too. “Ummm…” I hate spiders. Hate, hate, hate, them. Too many legs and they're all creepy and ugh. My rule is that if it had more than 4 legs it’s a no. If you're into bugs that’s fine just keep them away from me. I pressed into Sans when one of the little things ran across our path. He paused too for a second.

“Muffet!?” He called into the darkness and he got a high pitched laughing in response. Which got a groan of complaint from Sans “Okay here’s the deal.” He said turning to me “I know you hate spiders but I suspect you won’t like them or bakeries after this. She probably going to think it’s funny to make us play live action frogger to get away from her “pet” which happens to be a giant spider muffin hybrid so umm… I’ll try and talk her out of it but just be aware.” I really didn’t like this plan. At all. “If I can't talk her out of toying with us, she’ll send us into a monster fight. No matter what happens please don’t press the giant orange fight button okay?”

“Giant orange fight button? What the hell?”

“In a monster fight, we are given four options fight, act, item, and mercy. Each one does a different thing. Fight lets you attack your opponent. Act lets you interact with them. Item lets you use an item to heal, equip a new weapon things like that. Finally, mercy which lets you spare or flee from your opponent. We won’t be able to flee from her but we can spare her.”

“So it’s like a video game?”

“A really old one yes.”

“Okay… I’m ready. Let’s do this” he nodded and took the lead again. Stepping out onto a giant bridge of WEB “I lied I’m not at all ready. This isn’t safe.” I said stepping onto the sticky substance that sagged dangerously as I put my weight on it. I cautiously took another step feeling the webbing cling to my legs. _EWWWWWWW!!!!!!_ I stopped to put on my sweater at least temporarily so that way the hairs on my arms wouldn’t scare the shit out of me since they wouldn’t be moving or anything under it. Slowly I made my way up to Sans, the webbing thickening around my ankles making it harder to move with each step. We reached the middle of the web.

“Remind me why you can’t just teleport Sans?” I grumbled.

“Because I need to not use my powers right now. If I use my powers now I will use it as an excuse to run away when I need to be brave against my fears and my past.”

“Riiight. Anything else you’d like to tell me about your fighting system since we’re stuck?” I grumbled trying to lift my feet again but not able to thanks to the web which basically glued me to the bridge.

“Dodge,” he said and looked up. I followed suit and saw a spider woman thing. She wore a red colored dress (It wasn’t exactly a dress but I don’t know the proper term) and had black hair with two pigtails on either side. She also wore heeled boots for two of her legs and four of her others held teapots and teacups. The last two were clinging to the roof as her torso bent over almost backward. Oh, did I mention she had five eyes that went around her face and blinked in climbing order then all together. It was terrifying.

“Hello, deary. I don’t believe we’ve met before.” she said it’s many eyes trained on me “Sans dear who is this new friend you’ve brought with you today? Not Gaster, I see.” They shifted to the skeleton.

“We’re just passing through Muffet. Can we not do this?” He said coldly.

“I would usually say yes, but I think I’d like to meet your friend here. I know my pet would.” She laughed and dropped from the roof on a web I hadn’t seen previously. The entire floor lit up, and the bridge hadn’t really been a bridge so much as just a net and there were spiders. Lots of spiders. Everywhere. I was pretty convinced this was nightmare fuel. Then it got worse. But also better.

The webbing let go but we couldn’t move. We were standing on on big orange button (It was literally a button. I could press it and it would activate) that said “fight” in big orange letters with a little picture of a sword next to it I also noticed Sans was standing next to me

“So uhh… wanna explain?”

“After this, I’ll answer any questions we have but for right now let’s focus on surviving this.” He responded and then said “Don’t hit this one. We’re not here to hurt anybody. Let’s go over to Mercy.”

“How does one do that?”

“This is going to sound stupid but imagine a button just like this one except instead of a sword the pictures of the letter x and instead of the word fight it says mercy.” _Okay???_ I imagined it and I was suddenly on the other side of the room standing on the big mercy button.

“Now what?” This was probably not the best way to introduce monster fights but hey. I’d like to not be eaten by a giant spider muffin.

“Press it.”

“I probably look super dumb right now I hope you know that.” I said as I put weight on my foot and I was moved to a white box with two bullet points one said “*Spare” the other said, “*Flee” he definitely told me that we wouldn’t be able to flee.

“Then we both look dumb together. Press spare.” Why is this a thing? Do monsters actually fight like this?

In her two now empty hands, she held two cartoonish hearts. One was blue and somehow even from across the room I knew it belonged to Sans. He had one eye closed like he was concentrating on something. The other was purple and it seemed familiar. But I couldn’t quite place it.

“Sans deary you can’t be so blue all the time. Why don’t you like purple?” She said and her hand closed around the heart and he shifted in discomfort growling the slightest bit. She opened her palm and the heart was a deep purple and it floated back to its owner. He moved across the web like he was on a tightrope. She smiled and turned to me “Now you are interesting you’re already purple but it’s not MY purple. Let’s fix that shall we?” She closed her palm around the purple heart and I felt something changing. Something that shouldn’t be. I closed my eyes trying to shake the uncomfortable feeling I had where I guess my soul would be?

When I opened my eyes again it was not the same place I had just been in. I was standing on a purple rope with another one high enough over that I’d need to jump to get up on it and one below me that was just above the floor. Each was inverted a little bit so you could jump down onto the ones previously (like stairs except the steps are just rope and are one-dimensional.) the web we had just been standing on was nowhere to be seen and the floor wasn’t exactly the floor more of um a white line? The wall and the roof were also white lines now.

The box closed and I blinked and the box opened again and the four buttons appeared in front of me and the white outlined box (who had Muffet standing on it) simply read, “You’re trapped in a strange purple web!”

“Yeah I’m aware thanks,” I growled at it and the purple heart made an appearance again. It sat on the fight button and when I moved my eyes to any of the other four it moved with it. It was like watching earlier from the third person and it was weird. I did hear some 8-bit music going on somewhere in the background along with a gradually increasing solo of an instrument I couldn’t name offhandedly. (They were two separate songs I think) but I tuned them out and chose the spare option again. I was suddenly jerked back onto the tightropes which I guess was the web the box had told me about. I don’t know how I wasn’t motion sick yet. I usually got SUPER motion sick being jerked around so much but this was different I guess. I noticed a little spider beside Muffet holding up a sign that said “Up next:” with a picture of a cartoon spider next to it. I also saw a little golden box that said 20/20 next to it.

“This would be the part you’d want to dodge spiders, doughnuts and baked goods in general like you’re crazy by the way.” Sans said standing on the rope just above struggling to keep his balance. I had no problem with staying steadily perched on my rope, (thanks, tail) and suddenly I realized why this advice was helpful. One word. Spiders. Spiders everywhere. Two came dancing onto the top rope and I mean literally arm in arm dancing. Sans jumped down onto my part of the web “Fancy meeting you here,” he smiled.

“You're dumb. Focus on the task at hand and flirt with me later.” I said but smiled back at him so he knew I was mostly joking as two more spiders danced past on the bottom rope not quite getting off it before I saw two more on our rope coming from the opposite direction. “Behind you!” I warned and jumped up heaving myself onto the topmost rope.

“Thanks!” He jumped down again just missing the bottom spiders. It was strange how hypnotizing the spider’s dance was. When not jumping between the web it was hard not to join in and I hate dancing. It makes me look dumb as fuck. One more spider passed us on both the top and bottom layer making us jump onto the same layer again. “Hi again.”

“Hi.” I said a little stressed out. The purple hearts appeared on the buttons again I sat for a minute catching my breath

“You two look tired how bout I get you a cup of spiders to drink?” Muffet offered and I shook my head.

A white dialogue box still said, “Muffet pours you a cup of spiders.” As she tipped a teapot and… Shit that’s a lot of spiders. I paused before I hit spare to see what the up next sign would say. It still had a cartoon Garfield the cat style spider drawn hastily on it. I pressed spare and the web appeared beneath me again.

“You’ll make a delicious cake deary.” Muffet addressed me before laughing again. We were on the middle web layer still and Sans was able to shove me onto the rope below us and jump up onto the top rope of his own before a spider that I hadn’t seen creep up behind me passed by where we had just been standing. Another one approached quickly only a little bit behind the first one I waited until the last second I possibly could and jumped onto the middle rope again.

“You know what Sans?” I called up to him getting the hang of this a little bit.

“What?”

“This is actually kind of fun.”

“Glad you aren’t stressed about our lives being literally on the line here.”

“Well I mean I am stressed about it but it’s fun to jump around a little bit. Maybe it’s just the adrenaline talking, but whatever.”

“So I can count this as a date?”

“Haha.” Two more spiders appeared on the top and middle rows. I slid off mine and Sans just skipped layer two altogether and just hit the bottom layer hard.

“But no seriously if we get hit by those spiders we get stuck in the dance with them so with that in mind does this technically count as a date?” He persisted

“By human standards or by our standards?” I weaved between four more spiders going between middle and bottom layers letting him weave between the middle and bottom at his leisure

“Either.”

“By human standards, absolutely not. A fight to survive would not count as a date even sort of. By our standards, I feel like the world isn’t really going to give us a chance to have a date that fits in with “Human standards” so I’ll allow it.”

“GUYS I SCORED A DATE!!!” He called from the top layer

“ONLY IF YOU SURVIVE!!” I retorted and the round ended.

“Muffet pours you a cup of spiders.” The dialogue box said.

“Thanks, smart ass. I couldn’t see that before now.” I snapped playfully at a dialogue box that did not care one way or the other. The up next sign now had TWO spider cartoons on it. OH NO WE’RE DOOMED!! Okay but seriously I’m having too much fun with this. We pressed spare and it was Muffet’s turn

“Will I ever let you go?” she said like she couldn’t hear us flirting around (which maybe she couldn’t I don’t know) “Don’t be silly.” We started on the middle rope no matter where we ended the round before it seems. Two spiders. One on the middle rope and one on the bottom danced with each other as they passed and we heaved ourselves onto the top layer. Sans was taking a little longer this time and I heaved him up.

“What’s the matter? Getting tired?” I teased.

“Yeah, just a little not used to this anymore and unlike SOME people I have to WORK for my balance.”

“You’re doing it wrong then. You shouldn’t have to. You can put both your feet side by side so straighten your back… There you go.” I instructed his hand gripping onto mine like he thought he was going to fall “and when you start moving again try standing like this.” I demonstrated putting my starting foot forward a little bit “So you can lunge off this and I’m gonna push you off now sorry.” I shoved him down to the bottom rope seeing a spider or three behind him and seeing more on the middle layer. I jumped (even doing a flip. Just to show off.) and landed on the bottom floor.

“Okay then Miss Acrobat.” Sans growled and I just flashed a grin at him. Jumping onto the middle layer hearing a spider behind me and the dodging another on the middle layer before climbing down onto the bottom layer again. Sans followed much slower but he did “I’m getting too fat and lazy for this Muffet…” I heard him grumbling to himself thanks to his joints protesting this sudden amount of action (haha not that kind of action ya pervert). Luckily for him, the round ended and he got a second to sit.

“All the spiders clap along to the music.” Yup I could hear them this was like Cinderella’s ball for them. The dance that they were doing was similar to a slow dance in set up but not in pace. It was fun to watch and apparently fun to do.

“Ready to go again, Sans?” I asked

“Give me a minute to fix my-” He grunted and I heard a crack I couldn’t see him but he was nearby “Shoulder.. Yup let’s do this.”

The sign now had a picture of a spider and a doughnut _A doughnut? Like a doughnut made of spiders? Or just a doughnut?_

“Your souls are going to make every spider very happy.” Muffet soothed and into dodging phase we go. Up, down, up, down, down, up, up, left, right, jump down to the bottom. Scramble to the top. Then there were doughnuts they were just normal doughnuts… Made of spiders… Fun.... Sort of. They would start on one line but move up to the roof or floor and bounce off them and go through the webs again and exit the other end of the space. That was interesting to have to predict where they were going to be next. Which made it so running back and forth on a single wire was useful. The round ended. Haven’t seen any soul eating muffins yet.

“Muffet does a synchronized dance with the other spiders.” The sign had a hot air balloon on it. Hot air balloon?

“Okay so here’s how this is going to work.” Sans said, “Giant Spider Muffin has arrived and we’re going to have to run up the web like we’re running across the country with a 5-second timer and we expect to make it.”

I laughed. “Not possible.”

“Once you see him it will be.”

“Okay.”

“You’ve done great so far just no dying to Spider Muffin.”

“No dying to Spider Muffin. Got it.”

“Ready?”

“I was born ready.”

“Oh how rude of me! I almost forgot to introduce you to my pet.” She said and I felt the ground shaking. “It’s breakfast, isn’t it? Have fun.” Sans steadied me when the rumbling got worse. He made eye contact with me as a huge shadow moved behind him. It turned revealing that it was. In fact, A GIANT SOUL EATING MUFFIN THAT WAS A SPIDER. It looked like a normal cornbread muffin thing with a wrapping coloring on its lower half and it had eight dark purple legs and the cornbread muffin part of it was morphed into a face with huge teeth and gleaming black eyes. It roared in rage making my ears ring and it came running at us.

“It’s behind me somewhere isn’t it?” Sans asked uncaringly I nodded shakily “Great. Just great.” He said still deadpan. It would’ve been funny except this thing looked like it was going 15 miles per hour and I was not going anywhere NEAR that fast.

“Run!” I squeaked jumping up onto the middle row. Sans followed as it crashed into the bottom line. “This isn’t fun anymore!” The white roof extended revealing more ropes and the higher we climbed the more it revealed. It wasn’t too long before I was clearing two or three lines in a single bound. I could outpace it fine as it swallowed the ropes below me whole but the only problem was there were spiders on the ropes as well that ran up and down their line that I had to dodge and moving side to side to miss them only made spider from hell over there move faster. Sans was a couple wire below me and was slowly getting closer to the muffin. I paused long enough for him to catch up. Whelp this isn’t fast enough. I grabbed onto his sweater “Hold on.” I shifted into some form of a monkey and climbed a hell of a lot faster. Sans didn’t seem to care that he could keep an eye on demon muffin. I eventually outpaced it enough that it was slipping off the box. It’s ear piercing roar cried out again as it slipped off the box and into the void below I heard it hit and the blood-curdling roar rang out again. Not in pain but in rage. We’d meet him again. I shifted back dropping Sans on a rope and realizing how exhausting it was to shift in this form of combat.

“Good job.” Sans commented as the round ended.

“Muffet tidies up the web around you.” Up next, spiders and doughnuts. After muffin man, this was child’s play. Three rounds of weaving between spiders and doughnuts before croissants were thrown in… Literally… There were spiders throwing croissants at us… we were being bombarded by spiders that used fucking croissants as weapons...

The croissants were basically boomerangs. They would go straights across one line stopping about at the end of the wire and return to the sender. Three or so rounds of being assaulted by spiders flinging croissants at us were said and done before the roaring returned.

“Shit here we go again!” Said Captain Obvious who was otherwise known as Sans. This time, they bombarded us with MORE baked goods before he arrived. The first wave of croissants came flying at us when Sans wasn’t ready and… _Thock_ one donked (Words are my first English as I’m sure you realize) him in the back of the head. He turned around and ripped that sucker out of the air yelled “HEY TURD! I THINK YOU’RE MISSING THIS!!!” and flung it meekly back at it and watched triumphantly as it flew proudly at the spider and…. hit the ground before it was out of the box. He watched it float down his look of triumph quickly becoming something more cartoonish as his eyes expanded to twice their normal size and his mouth just kind of stayed frozen in this grin.

“Well shit.” He grumbled as it skidding to a landing. He then proceeded to YELL AT THE CROISSANT. “HEY! I WAS TRYING TO IMPRESS MY GIRLFRIEND HERE SO I’D APPRECIATE IT IF YOU COOPERATED!!” and I was laughing so hard I stopped breathing. Seeing he was getting a reaction from me he picked it up and tried again. Only to have it come back and smack him between the eyes. _Thock_ “Fuck.” I just couldn’t. I legit forgot about the muffin man until it jumped from nowhere and I realized I had zero air and the sound that I would’ve made if I had air (I think it’s called a scream? Did I get that right?) came out more like I was strangling a duck. “Stop quaking! Come on!” He joked and started climbing. We were able to outpace it for long enough that it slipped and fell again. The round ended.

“Dearies I hate to tell you but you’ve fulfilled your side of the bargain. So I will fulfill mine. You got to meet my pet and so now I’ll let you go if you please~” Muffet said and we both let out a sigh of relief. As much as we had made it not a big deal and had been playing around we were both getting tired and ready to be done.

The dialogue box simply said, “Muffet is sparing you.” and the up next sign was empty and once we pressed spare once more and our souls changed back to their normal color and the battle interface faded revealing we, in fact, were still stuck to the web and the lights were out again.

Muffet laughed, “Come back sometime, dearies!” She said disappearing into the darkness and the webbing let us go and I walked over to Sans.

“Ready to go?” He asked.

“Yeah. But once we get out there I want to just sit for a second. That was a lot.”

“I bet. Come on. Let’s get out of here.” We walked across the rest of the bridge without difficulties. (Not even the part where the web clung to us.) We went out the door, never more grateful to be back out in the heat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I discovered a new way to quickly edit things for the most part and as long as I have writing to supply it I should be able to put chapters out much faster. Anyways this was a fun chapter to write, Sans got to yell at croissants, Riley got to laugh her ass off etc.


	21. I can't even hot mess right it seems

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Exposition! Lot's of exposition!

Coming out of the cave and into the heat immediately made my stomach hate my sweater so that was back around my waist before we were even halfway through the arch that led back outside. Even though I had been exhausted from the fight I felt just fine now. Sans looked a little eroded but he kept pushing until we left the spider’s den far behind us. We reached the end of a platform, and there looming in front of us were rows upon rows of panels with arrows. Sans finally stopped and said, “Okay let’s… Let’s rest here.” I settled on the metal, whereas he just kind of slumped down on it.

“Are you doing alright?”

“I… I don’t know.” He admitted.

“What happened?”

“In that fight with muffet…. I hate to admit it but those croissants hurt a lot more than I thought they did at the time.” He growled closing an eye and a tiny blue heart appeared where his heart would be if he had one. It wasn’t like the one Muffet changed earlier, that one had been whole. Healthy even. This one was beaten and had cracks all over it. It oozed a strange blue ectoplasmic liquid off it onto the rocks beneath it where it boiled and bubbled into a cyan vapor. I suspected this last step was less of the heart, and more of the fact we were sitting over lava. “Yeah that’s not good.” He said after examining it. It cracked a little more and he howled in pain. “Definitely not good.”

“Ummm what is it? Why is it bleeding? Can you stop it from breaking?” I asked scared and he blinked and it was gone again.

“That was my soul. Your Soul makes up your being, your personality. It’s what makes you you. Your soul has a color that it has when it just is without intervention. Intervention as in like Muffet turning us purple. My color happens to be blue. I don’t know your’s but that color represents something, a trait that you posses that sums up your how and why you function. Sums up your morals. Are all of your thoughts going to line up with this trait? No that’d be ridiculous but it’s a generalization of where your loyalties belong.

“Everyone is born with a soul, even humans and when we die our corpse surrenders our soul and when someone comes near your soul they absorb it. Taking in part of your being. When humans say the person who died lives on in the grieving person they literally mean they live on in that person. The absorbed soul fuses with the living soul and that person gains traits that the deceased person had. Way of speaking, favorite color, minor hobbies, powers if they had them. It’s also why survivor's guilt is a thing. Because you survived to absorb the person who died in place of them and usually people don’t like being the one who is the reason for the death of people.

“When we get into monster fights we battle with our souls, which a lot more deadly because a destroyed soul not only kills you but turns you into a pile of dust no matter what race you are and means that you die out. No one can absorb your soul if it’s broken beyond repair. When we die, we turn into a pile of dust instead of just being a lifeless body if our soul is destroyed. So to make it so we don’t all die out in one fight we have it a turn based format.

“Also our soul colors classify where we fall in our society. There are the soulless: Those brought back from the dead by means other than healing magic. They are, well, soulless and unable to feel any emotions usually, but occasionally can only feel positive or negative emotions. For example, Asriel in his flower form. He was brought back with determination by accident so he has no soul and can only feel negative emotions. These people are actually fairly common. A well known example would be those extroverted dogs that are happy no matter what. They usually are the spirit of another dog who died and no one absorbed its soul leaving it to find a new body. When it found one, the body’s current soul are destroyed leaving it happy forever since that is the last thing it felt, happy that it found a new home.

“Next are the blank souls, they are just white, which means blissful or innocent. Sometimes even considered less important. Most monsters you meet are like this. Grillby, Kassandra, the spiders that weren’t Muffet, Burgerpants-.”

“Who’s Burgerpants?” I interupted

“He was that cat who was looking at you at the MTT hotel?”

“Oh that guy? Burgerpants is a weird name.”

“There’s a reason he’s called that. He was trying to flirt and maybe score a date by sneaking burgers out to two girls and his boss caught him so somehow he ended up getting pantsed by mistake and some burgers fell out of his pants pockets. Hence the name.” He explained taking a breath before he continued. “These people still have their own personalities and thoughts they just don’t have the same responsibility as boss monsters do.”

“Boss monsters?”

“Hold on. I’m getting there.” More heavy breathing. “They live their lives and move on.”

“Next is the boss monsters. They have colored souls and they are the more powerful of monsters. All humans are considered boss monsters and they have responsibilities that tend to be greater than the blank ones. They have a real purpose. A mission. A burning passion of something they need to complete in their lifetimes. Among the boss monsters, they are further divided by the color of your soul.

“Red means usually means love, passion, rage, distrust, or determination. Frisk’s soul is red for her determination and unwillingness to give up. Papyrus’ is red for his love of his friends and family.

“Orange means optimism, childhood, disgust, and extroversion. Name any extrovert and chances are their soul is orange. Rob and Lexi are probably good examples.

“Yellow symbolizes joy, cheerfulness, perfectionism, order seeking. An example being, well, your mom, Joy, who always lived up to her name until her death at the hands of my dad." I chose to not ask questions about this.

“Green usually is the color of calm, practical, open, envy, frankness, energy, and the desire to be loved. Our current Captain of the Royal Guard, Undyne, is known for her energy and spirit, is a probably the best example I can come up with even though you have no idea who Undyne is.

“Blue has the most emotions simply because it can be interpreted in a huge number of ways. It stands for loyalty, friendship, depression, introversion, logic, down-to-earth, honesty, sensitivity. Things like that. So I guess we’ll use me as an example. Loyal to my friends and family to the point of sacrificing myself for them.

“The last is purple. It usually stands for compassion, creativity, secretivity, greed, ambition, selfishness, quick to anger, mercy and vigilance. Your dad, Vigilance, had a purple soul, which makes sense. He kept going even in the most desperate of times."  Still prenteded I didn't register the fact that he probably knew something and his face paled when he thought of them.

“After boss monsters comes the most famous: golden souls. Which are only for royalty so Asgore, Toreil, normal Asreil and pre-death Chara would have golden souls.

“The last and most hated of the soul types are the black souls. These are corrupted souls. They went insane with too much grief, anger or craving for power. They are hated and exiled by all, thanks to their insanity and bloodlust.There are examples everywhere but I’ll name a few, Gaster, post-death Chara, god of hyperdeath and angel of death Asreil. Any leader that was ever said to be cruel and unforgiving. Assassins. If you want a human example, King Macbeth in Shakespeare's play would have had a black soul.” He explained. That’s cool. I thought. “How do you summon your soul?” I asked.

“Do you not feel it pulsing inside you?” He asked nervously. I paused and no I didn’t feel anything.

“No? Is that a bad thing?”

“Not necessarily, it might just need a little coaxing. Here may I?” He reached a hand towards me.

“What are you going to do?”

“I’m just going to find your soul and make it more obvious for you.”

“Can all monsters do that?”

“No. Asgore trained me to do this as part of my role in the royal guard for the King. I was trained to find people’s souls and judge them on those actions as a way of protecting him from people like megalomaniac Chara. I’m just going to use that power to help you that part of yourself.”

“Uhh sure..?”

“Thanks. This won’t hurt, but you might see things from my own memories” He closed his eyes and the world disappeared around me I was thrown into a place that I didn’t recognize. There were too many things happening at once to put it together. I saw only a flash of … “mmmm...MA!..mmmmaam..” the speaker couldn’t have been more than a year old. Another more female looking skeleton laid on her belly nearby filling in a crossword. She looked up when she heard the baby’s voice.

“Come on little one you’re almost there. What’s my name?” She encouraged.

“Mmm….mmmm… Mama!!” He squealed and the mother looked so proud her eyes shining with the tiniest hint of tears.

“That’s right! Can you tell me your name?” The memory faded and another one took it’s place.

“Look mom! I can help you too!” Sans was now 3 or 4 and he struggled to get on the counter where the female from earlier glanced down at him from where she had been stirring a batter for something. Waiting patiently for him to stumble up so he could help. This one faded too the next one was a little darker more… Disrupted ...A tiny child looking at a 10 foot tall man. A skeleton to be exact

“You killed her!!” The scene changed to a dark room with a huge reindeer looking machine.

“If you don’t do this… I’ll do it to your brother instead.” The tall monster told the child. The scene changed again this one was just screaming from the child and laughing from the man. A eyeless bloody face lunged out of nowhere. Scaring the shit out of me and the red rocks and sizzling lava around me returned into focus. Sans looked concerned.

“You okay? Did you see something?”

“Just a bloody face with no eyes… Leaping at me… well you, I guess. The rest of it made no sense. Just blurs of memories. Things people said to you.”

“Any repeated character aside from myself?”

“A tall skeleton. He always seemed to take advantage of any grip he could get on you. There was a female one… Your mom I think.” He gazed at the ground.

“I didn’t know I still had those ones… I still remember her somewhere in the depths of my mind… Strange… Well anyways. Try to see if you can sense your soul now.”

“Sans, of course you remember her. She was your mother.”

“Yeah I know but I thought that I had gotten rid of those memories for good… Gotten over her death.”

“Is that really how you were taught to cope?”

“What?”

“You were taught that you needed to delete everything you remember about someone when they say goodbye? That doesn’t help anyone keep those closest to you Sans.”

“Why? They just hurt now.”

“That’s always going to be a part of those. You lost your mom at a young age it seems... But you can’t shelter yourself from pain forever.”

“I know but somewhere I thought…”

“That you were helping yourself. I know. But those undealt with emotions is why you still need that sweater and won’t take it off for anything. Why you can barely bring yourself to put one foot in front of the other in this place. You thought that you could put those aside for me. Because you knew I would like it down here, but you couldn’t and that’s perfectly normal and it’s why I’ve dragged you this far down. Because you need this. You maybe don’t realize that yet but if you can force yourself to deal with these memories, these thoughts, maybe you can pull the glass out of the wound that keeps the wound open and let those wounds heal.” I said sternly.

“You remind me so much of your dad. You remind me of my mom too… Not saying that that’s why I like you so much. That’s one reason, but I feel like I’ve known you for longer than I really have. But I have other things that I like about you too. My friendships with both of those people are very different than my friendship (relationship?) with you.” He looked at the ground his cheeks turning blue a little bit. I got what he was trying to say. He just couldn’t find the words to say it. I brushed under his eye (carefull not to hurt him or stab him in the eye or.. Wow I’m getting nervous. Anxiety go die in a ditch!) with a thumb and he relaxed a tiny bit.

“You’re going to be alright. I promise.”

“I hope you’re right. I really do. Now please let me just focus on you before I’m overwhelmed. I’ll deal with this when the proper time comes.” I sighed and sat back down scanning my body for my soul. “Not to be a total creep but your memories make me worry a little bit about how you are really doing on the inside.” He said, echoing my concerns for him. “I only saw glimpses of the eternal darkness you’ve cast upon yourself but what I did see makes me worry about you… Just, if you need someone to be a walking teddy bear for you to vent with, I’m here for you okay?” I flinched. He said he only just caught glimpses, but he had only caught the better parts. I knew he had. If he had seen the point where it had been the worst he wouldn’t be sane right now. He’d be running the hell away from me. He’d leave me on my own in the cold again. “No. Riley. Your lowest point was too powerful… To affecting on your life for it not to be shown to me.” I flinched away from him but he had been anticipating this reaction. He caught my shoulder and my hip “Riley look at me.” I struggled against him. _No no no no._ It wasn’t him seeing that made me fight. It was the pain of knowing his next words that made me struggle. He sighed as I tried to force my way out of his grasp. “You’re gonna make me do this the hard way huh?” I fought harder except I sort of gave up too. I tried to push him away but also was snuggling into his sweater silently begging him to make the pain and the fear stop. He didn’t let me get too comfy however. He put his hands on my shoulders and forced me to meet his steady amethysts. “I know that life hasn’t let you think anything but the bad in people but please… Give me a chance to show you that life can go jump off a bridge… Let me help you… You tried for so long to deal with this on your own. Let me make sure you don’t have to put that fake smile on around everyone but be dying inside… I know that even around me you still use that false smile to try and hide your pain. I know why you did it, but it doesn’t have to be that way.” _No. No. He’s just going to use it to hurt you. Don’t you dare trust him with_ anything. _Run! Do something! ANYTHING! Just get the hell out of here!_ I started to shift and he didn’t stop me from slipping out of his arms shifting into a lizard since they’d have more energy in the heat. I ran back up towards where we came from. “Really? Going back to Muffet?” He asked closing his eyes. I wasn’t sure if his look of pain was because of the damage his soul had taken from Muffet or the fact his soul (His replacement for a heart?) had been shattered by something else. Was that something else could be I have zero idea. Guys are weird. But he was right. No more soul eating muffins for me. I turned around and scurried to the way we were going to go. But I stopped at the gray steaming metallic pads on the ground they had the big red arrows I decided I was too scared of them throwing me into the lava to use them. Surrounding us on every other side was a massive cliff edge that dropped into the boiling, sloshing, lava. Now you may be wondering why I didn’t just fly over Muffet’s cave and the reason was because it was tall enough that it reached the roof hundreds of feet above us and was wide enough that I’d be flying for hours to go around it and be hopelessly lost by the time I got around it. _God fucking damnit._

I shifted back and pulled out my phone. It was noon. It had only been about 15 human minutes… Man monsters are weird. Then a different voice besides the constantly nagging and chidding and bullying voice whispered, _Why are you scared of this guy? Can’t you see that he needs you as much as you need him? He’s heartbroken that you’re running away from him. He LOVES you. He wants to help you and you need him to help you. You can’t keep doing this on your own. You know that_ during _your lowest point you wanted to kill yourself. That was all you wanted to do. Make everything STOP HURTING. But you know what? You didn’t. Do you know why you didn’t?_

Yeah because my family put too much work into keeping me around for me to just do that to them.

_There’s another reason too._

Yeah? Like what.

 _Because somewhere in the back of your head you knew things would get better. That there was a light at the end of the tunnel. You knew that somehow something, or someone was going to come around and make you stop hurting in a much better way_ _than ending everything forever._ Okay maybe this voice did some chiding but it was just talking sense into me. _Not destroying me like the other one did. Let him try. You’ve put a lot of trust in him already and he shows you how broken and beaten he is. He’s trusted you. At least trust him with some things. Please, you’re hurting yourself more than anyone else by running. Yes, he’ll hurt. But you will be the one who’s still in pain long after he’s moved on._

What if he turns out like Sam?

_Do you remember Sam EVER fighting so hard to try and help you feel better?_

In the beginning he did.

_No. Not the way Sans is. Look at this guy. He was willing to bring you back to the place where he was TORTURED just so you can geek out about the monsters. That’s commitment. Yes, you’ve helped him do it but he made the choice to do it. All he’s done differently from you is he’s let you help him. He’s asked you to help him with this. He is currently in a lot of pain because he wanted to make sure you... we're happy and having fun. For reals. Not just mock-cheerful but really truly happy. What’s it gonna take for you to realize that?_

Why do you have to be right?

_Because I’m willing to accept the facts for what they are. Despite old wounds._

Goddamnit.

This voice in my head was right. No matter how much everything else wished it wasn’t.

_Go on tell him you're ready now. To suck up your pride and to let him help you as much as he can._

That sounds like I’d have to get up in his bubble.

_Fuck his personal space._

WOAH! NOT THERE YET!!!

_Oh. My god._

Is that not what you meant?

_I meant hug him, dumbass._

Oh.

_Pervert._

I’m sorry!

I slowly crept up to him he still seemed to be in pain. His breathing heavy, teeth bared and his eyes forced closed. _Is now really the best time?_

_I somehow doubt that you showing some affection will break anything besides his brain. His brain won’t survive probs._

Well shit now I have to do it. His brain is always fine no matter what.

At this point I was sitting just in front of him. I don’t think he noticed my presence. Not yet at least. This is definitely a poor life choice. Wrapped my arms around him in a hug and I almost felt his brain explode.

“So you didn’t run to the next state over… I didn’t think I’d be worth it to you.” he commented making me pull him closer. His arms overlapped around my back

_Told you he was heartbroken._

“Sans… I’m sorry. I just haven’t really shown anyone what the inside of my brain looks like it just startled me when you knew how bad it had gotten.” I whispered.

“I’m so glad you didn’t kill yourself.”

“Sans! You can’t say these things you making my heart hurt.”

“I’m so glad I got to meet you.”

Shit… Nope. No emotions. You have no emotions. It’s him who gets to be emotional.

“Even though it hurts to see what you think of your own value.”

This guy is trying to make me cry I swear. It wasn’t even like he had told me to… Wait nevermind that’s exactly what he just told me. Thank god he stopped talking for a minute. We let go and I decided to get the hell out of his personal space not because it was getting awkward but because I didn’t like people getting too close to me and I couldn’t imagine he did either.

“Will you let me try and help you?” He asked after we played the longest game of awkward staring game ever (The awkward staring game is where you make prolonged eye contact with someone when something got awkward. You can thank Rob for it.)

“Yes. But first let me help you.” I responded almost immediately.

“Well before we do that, show me that the accidental-on-purpose exchange of memories was worth it. See if you can sense your soul.” I closed my eyes again and yes it was there. It pulsed and danced around. It seemed happy.

“It’s there.”

“Good. Do you need me to tell you how to show it off?” He said leaning back on his arms.

“Let me try on my own and if I can’t figure it out I’ll ask you okay?”

“Go for it.” It actually really easy to do. Like it was instinct. It was like breathing you can’t really tell anyone what it feels like to have your lungs filled with air because it just was. When I opened my eyes again there it was in the space between the two of us. Glowing and shimmering “Woah.” It was glowing a dark purple and it seemed to be willing to fight an army if it meant a single wounded person surviving. It also, unlike Sans’, looked healthy and full;l a little tired but unrelenting all the same.

Speaking of Sans he seemed completely in awe of it his eyes as round as soccer balls.

“You alright Sans?” I asked with the tiniest hint of a laugh.

“Yeah it’s just.... Wow…” He reached a hand towards it but paused “Can I see it?” I shrugged.

“You are probably more trustworthy of it than I am.” He cautiously let it float over to him. Twirling it around his fingers. Moving his wrist in a way that accented it’s features. His face lit up by the purple light it cast. “For some reason I expected this to have some relation to my nerves or something but I really can’t even feel the fact that it’s out and about right now.” I commented expecting to feel some form of pain from him playing with it a little bit.

“If you can I’m doing something wrong. But it doesn’t surprise me that you thought that. A common misconception humans have about the souls is that they can be stimulated in a way that makes the owner of it feel some form of pleasure. I guess I see why but the souls have nothing to do with anything sexual and should be left out of it if at all possible. It can be a passionate time together without bringing them into it. It can be super dangerous for everyone involved.”

“Accidentally destroying someone's soul and them turning to dust when their trusting you with their body would be awkward.”

“Exactly.” He held the little heart in the palm of his hand “With that in mind I’m about to give you a heart attack but I promise this won’t hurt at all.” He closed his hand around it making me flinch instinctively. “Hey it’s alright I’m just making it easier for you to put it back.” He opened his palm again to show me and it was half the size it had been before. He let it roll off his palm and back over to me. It came over and I took it back letting it fade into nothing and I could feel it’s presence in my body again. Back to it’s normal size too. “Ready to get going again?”

“Are you?” he paused.

“Yeah. I’ll be alright as long as we don’t get into any more fights and the damage isn’t something some food and a nap won’t fix.”

“It’s safe to assume here isn't your first choice of nap spot?”

“It’s warm but it’s also metal and has too many bad memories associated to it. Not to mention the fact that I move too much when the nightmares roll around so yeah I’ll wait until there’s an actual bed to sleep on.”

“Good choice.” I stood up careful not to go too quickly and offering a hand for Sans to help him up he took it and heaved himself up I started to turn away from him.

“Wait, wait, before we move again.” He kissed me which I wasn't exactly ready for but was excited to reciprocate anyways. A couple seconds in I couldn’t suppress a smile. Like a real ass smile. Teeth and all. He paused his initial look of confusion turning in a beaming gaze, “Alright come on, Sunny. We better get moving.” He teased

“Who ya calling sunny?” I purred walking at his side as we started forward again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If everything goes according to plan I should be uploading 22 and 23 tomorrow so yeah! I'm excited!


	22. Sans is an ABSOLUTE idiot.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Launch pads, cooking with killer robots (Not actually just using the kitchen) and macho-man boyfriends galore!

“I’m not saying I’m not sunny right now I’m just pointing out that you seem happy.” He said approaching the metal vent looking pad.

“If you weren’t already my boyfriend I’d call that catcalling.” I responded still smiling despite myself.

“Hey, hey, hey I’m not asking you to smile. I’m just saying you are.”

“Well obviously.”

“Does sweetheart suit you better?” He asked and I blushed looking at the dark purple ground under my feet.

“I don’t know.  That one is a frequent choice.”

“It’ll stay Riley then. At least until I come up with a more personal one.” He determined and approached the arrow in the ground.

“Rye not good enough for you?”

“That’s Rob’s thing not mine.”

“You did the ‘count how many people think we're dating’ thing. How is this different?”

“Rye is something he and the people who have known you for longer. Not me.”

“I wouldn’t care.”

“No. I’ll come up with something more personal, more my own.”

“If you’re sure.”

“I am.” He said firmly before directing his attention to the launchpad. “This is a launchpad. It’ll send you over to that island right there.” He said signalling over to a island that was just out of jumping range.  It had four more arrows on the north, east, south and west directions on it leaving space in the middle to land in. “Our goal is to get to the other side of this gorge.” He said and I saw another long walkway across the way from us with about 21 of the islands in a dodecagon (12 sided) shape and all the islands had the launch pads in varying combinations of the four main directions. There was also two other platforms leading away towards the south and the north.

“It’s a puzzle.”

“Exactly. Give it a try. Nothing’s on the line here.” he said and I looked at him with round, scared eyes. “I’m not going first.” 

“Why not?”

“Because you have to be brave enough to do it by yourself.” I sighed and stepped onto the pad a little nervous still. At first it didn’t do anything and then I put my other foot and the rest of my weight on it and the steam coming lazily from it suddenly sped up.

“Ummm…” was all I got the chance to say before it launched me into the air  _ Holy shit shit Oh wait nevermind.  _ I had landed and was in a fit of laughter

“Fun right?” He said from the first island and I nodded.

“You coming?”

“Not enough room. I’ll let you across first and then I’ll join you on the other side.”

“Okay…”  I looked around analyzing my surroundings.  _ If I go up one, left three, down two, left another one, up another one and left one more… Yes that should do it…  _  I jumped from island getting across without error. I looked back at Sans puffing my chest triumphantly at him once I made it to the other side. He looked impressed and followed.

“You made that look easy. It took me years to figure out how to do it without fucking up at least once.” He said once he got to the other side.

“This puzzle happened to favor a sense that is one of my best strengths. My sight.” 

“I noticed that actually. Your ability to see that something is wrong long before I tell you.” He said starting walk away from the puzzle prompting me to follow.

“You like telling people things. Explaining them.”

“You're smarter than I am.” He confirmed and I need to desensitise myself to him doing the compliment thing otherwise I was going to spend half this relationship blushing.

“No, just observant.”  
“You’re that too, but mostly you’re smart.” I laughed. “No seriously.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“Just because you have no self esteem doesn’t make it not true.” He pointed out passing a table with varying baked goods with signs that had prices like “999999 g” on them.

“Yeah I guess.” I said gazing at the signs. “Sans how expensive is 999999 g in your currency system?”

“Enough to buy all the property in the underground.” He said glancing in the direction that I was. “Oh yeah this hasn’t been operated in a while. Muffet’s lowered her prices a ton since then.”

“Okay. I was gonna say...”

“Yup.”

“Do monsters not use commas?”

“Not really.  Does that bug you?”

“I mean it should be 999-coma-999 but I guess if she wants me to put work into it I guess I’ll work with it.”

“You should see my sign for fried snow.” He said. 

“Fried snow?”

“Yeah.”

“You are aware that’s impossible right?”

“Yeah it was a joke.”  
“How old were you when you decided to sell fried snow?”

“18.”

“You were a strange teenager.”  
“That grew into a stranger adult.”

“Eh just quirky enough for me.”

“Did you just say quirky?”

“I almost said something else.”

“You were about to call me kinky weren’t you?” He started laughing. “I know I’m dating a human.  All of my monster friends tease me for it. But you too?”

“Hey it’s not a bad thing! It’d be hypocritical if I were to do that to you since I am dating a skeleton, and about the friends getting onto me about it you should see the shit Rob texted me when I first told him I liked you a little bit more than a friend and I gave him 15 minutes to taunt me about it.” I said scrolling through my texts with Rob to the long span of texts.

“Wait what did he say about me?”

“Here.” I handed him the conversation and he stopped to read them. Some of them he looked a little repulsed by. Others, he just laughed at, and to still others he muttered, “Eh, true”.

A few minutes passed and he handed me back my phone. “Well now I know why you say you hate being teased because your friends know how to do it well.”

“Oh yeah?”

“How are you going to sleep with him? Rub his hipbone seductively?” He quoted one, making me laugh.

“That one was funny because it happened hours after you told me that you could have sex with someone and that your dick glows blue so… Joke’s on him.” I said and he laughed.

“Is this really that new? That you started having a crush on me three days ago?”

“I started having feelings for you long before then.  That was just when I knew what to call it.”

“Oh okay. I was going to be worried there.”

“Naw you’re sticking around.”

“For now at least.”

“We’ll try to make it longer than that.”

“I’d like that.”

“Me too.” We walked together quietly for a while until we came to a white tunnel with little circular horns on either side of it and “R3.” on it in big red letters “R3?”

“The third floor on the right.” He translated simply.

“Oh duh. I’m stupid.”

“No you’re not.  You just had no way of knowing.” He countered hitting the call button to go down.

“I don’t know about that.”

“Stop doubting yourself.  It’s not good for you.” He said as the doors opened and he stepped in.

“Someone getting a caffeine headache?”

“What made you think that?”

“I don’t know you just got curt really fast.”

“Oh sorry.  Just another one of those points that I’m trying really hard not to freak out.” He said hitting “L1” and the doors closed and his eye lit on fire in fear.

“How close are we?”

“Once we get to Alphys’ lab, we’ll be standing on top of the true lab.” I gripped his closest hand tightly and his eye dimmed a little. Not trying to run away when the doors opened again we stepped out into the warm breeze that was cooler than before. (Heat rises so it’d be warmer upstairs even though we're closer to the lava now.)

We slipped over orange-ish red sand as we continued trucking forward. I saw the black outline of a wall and wanted to run over it so bad knowing that a building meant maybe not dying of heat exhaustion but not doing so knowing that sprinting over to it meant generating more heat and probably pushing my churning stomach that I had been ignoring for the entire time over the edge and I suspected that would put a damper on this whole thing. Sans did speed up, sensing my desire for the cooler environment so we made it in good time and at first the air conditioning felt so freaking good on my too warm body that I really didn’t notice what this place was. All I knew was that there was a sink and that meant water. I washed off my face with the cool, cool liquid more than excited to let it run through some strands of my hair when I washed my sweaty face with it. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Sans examining a butcher’s knife. It was about as long as his forearm and he just held it up by the tip on the tip of his finger.

“Uhhh Sans that’s not a good idea…” He looked at me.

“No look. I got this..  Watch!” He said excitedly and then proceed to accidentally slice open his palm, because he’s a dumbass. “Owww…” He said blankly when he first dropped the blade and I thought it missed him focusing more on keeping my feet attached to my legs as the metal clattered on the floor. I stared at the knife and saw a tiny drop of red drip onto it. My eyes followed where the blood came from and saw Sans staring at his palm which was turned away from me. His eyes we're wide in shock. His face drained of what color it had.

“Sans? How bad is it?” I asked moving over and forcibly showing myself his palm. The gash was deep enough that it had scratched the other side of his hand and there was blood all over the inside of his palm seeping onto my hand.

“Ow ow ow watch it! That hurts!” He whimpered as I moved it.  _ Holy shit _ .

“Sorry but it’s gonna hurt more if we’re gonna fix it. Ummm… Okay come here.” I moved over to the sink turning it on. He reluctantly followed. “Clean it up. Don’t skimp out on it because if you do, I’ll get in there and I suspect I’ll be rougher than you.” I told him sternly looking around my surroundings closely for the first time. It was a kitchen with a yellowish blue floor with the same bubbles that had been in the walls and floor from the hallways in CORE. The wall was brown and there was a window that didn’t have glass and the window had a brown curtain above it the sky outside the window was a printed picture of the aboveground sky that had a couple clouds in it. There were a couple of drawers in the dark brown counter that held the sink. On another table of a similar shade there was a gray microwave with red buttons. _Cool. But not helpful. Wait._ Under the microwave there were two more drawers in the table. There was a black stove towards where we came in and above the end of the sink counter were two measly spice shelves each only holding two spices. “Wash it with soap!” I ordered Sans who just watched the water smear away the blood on his hand. On his other side was a navy blueish-black fridge. In front of me (I was facing the opposite way of Sans who was facing the window) was a counter with varying kitchen supplies and another sink. There was an impression of a butcher’s knife on the counter telling me two things. 1. This place had not been used in a long time. 2. That’s where Sans got his new, dangerous toy. I didn’t see any drawers in it. Above the microwave I saw two cupboards I hadn’t seen previously. _Let’s start there._ I opened the top cupboard (adjusting my height accordingly since it was several feet taller than my ability to reach) and got a faceful of dust in response. Inside was a couple boxes of waffle batter and something called, “Ghost Pie.” I had no idea what Ghost Pie was, but I determined they weren’t what I was looking for. I checked the second one (again readjusting my height putting on a couple pounds so I wasn’t a female Sans.) This one was full of normal/ghost meals. Ramen spaghetti. Hot dog buns. Things of those nature. Still not helpful right now. I shifted back down and checked on Sans. Who really had just been standing there. “Sans you're a dumbass give it here.” I chided and really got in there and got it clean. “Wanna tell me how a skeleton is bleeding?” I growled trying to get him to stop squirming.

“Ow ow ow ow ow ow stop it…. Please that hurts!” He whimpered “OW!” He howled as I got to the gash.

“I’m sorry.  You were a dumbass.  Now stop moving.” I snarled irritated at his own stupidity. I wasn’t even using the soap yet. “How are you bleeding?” I prompted again.  
“Ask me when I’m not in pain.” He growled trying to jerk his hand away from me.

“HEY! It’s your fault you cut yourself. I’m just trying to make sure you aren’t in the hospital for your mistake.” I hissed at his trying to rip his hand away from me.

“Owwww.” He whined and I growled wanting so badly to shut him up but deciding that I couldn’t be grumpy at him too much either.

“Sorry about this but it has to be done.” I said quietly as I got a palmful of soap. His eyes widened in alarm.

“No. Please no.” He started struggling again. I dug my elbow into his joint to hold him in place. 

“Think about this next time you start playing with knives, yeah?” I said slathering it on the wound making him hiss in fury and he tried to physically rip his hand off to get away his hand slipping out from under me and smashing into the wall of the sink making him scream in agony. “Sit. STILL.” I snarled getting him under control again. “Next time you do that means another two seconds past the normal 90 of me using the soap on it got it mister?” I spat angrily.

“Oh god, please, no.”

“Then stop moving and let me do this.” I was pissed. He KNEW better than to play with knives and yet… Here I was. That bastard. 

I wasn’t even sure why he thought it was a good idea.  Maybe he had been trying to impress me like he had with the croissants at Muffet’s? Whatever the reason it was the reason he was half bent over the other sink tub panting like he just fought off six dragons with his bare hands. He sat perfectly still for the next minute and a half letting me really get in there and get it clean. “Okay stay there I wanna wrap that up.” I said rising the blood of my hands before take my weight off his elbow he stayed under the water trying to curl his fingers “Did you destroy those nerves?” I asked him gently.

“I… I don’t know… I can’t feel my fingertips… That’s bad isn’t it?” He responded his voice full of fear.

“Not necessarily.  You might just be numb from the pain or shock. Tell me in thirty human minutes if you can’t feel them still and we’ll be more worried about it than okay?” I comforted him to the best of my abilities. His insane phobia of doctors was the reason I had spent so long making sure he wasn’t getting an infection if I could help it. Because if he got it infected, he wasn’t going to get it looked at and that infection was going to get worse and worse until me or Papyrus dragged a kicking and screaming Sans to the ER and there was nothing they could do to help him besides take his hand and amputate it which nobody wanted.

“Uhh..  Not to bother you but… It’s sorta bleeding again.” He said nervously when I half had my head stuck in a drawer next to a sink. Luckily this one had dishrags in it. I grabbed a couple and rinsed them under the water to get rid of the dust and clean them as best as I could before turning off the faucet.

“Give it.” I said flatly and he moved it into my open palm.

“I’m sorry for this… I’m stupid and I should’ve listened.” He said quietly. I sighed.

“It’s alright. You’re not stupid you just… Weren’t thinking. Think about what a knife is next time before you start playing with them okay?” I said equally as quiet. Putting some soap under the white cloth before wrapping it over his tear in his palm and under his thumb and around the back of his hand before overlapping the first part again pressing the corner under the cloth to hold it in place. “Put pressure on it.” I said before pushing off the counter again and continuing my search. I found nothing useful and sighed in defeat and grabbed another stack of dishrags.

I undid my first bloody wrap and set it aside rinsing the soap bubbles out of the laceration. Than wrapped a couple clean, dry rags around it “When we get home  I’m washing that again and getting a real bandage on it. I don’t like having to half-ass it.” I stated firmly before going to the knife on the floor and picking it up by the handle and walking back to the sink with its point facing the ground. Nudging Sans out of the way and cleaning the blood off it and using it to slice the bloody rag into tiny pieces and stepping into the nauseating heat and dumped the shreds into the brilliant red lava below having no better way to dispose of them as there wasn’t a trash can. Finally setting the knife back exactly as he had found it and storing the extra rags back in their drawer and looking around for anything I may have missed and when I didn’t see anything I motioned him to follow. “Come on.  We have better places to be.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, Sans is an idiot, but he is super nervous about the whole being-in-a-relationship-with-a-pretty-girl-he's-had-a-crush-on-for-a-long-time thing and is sorta afraid he'll lose his place if he doesn't impress her enough. Still. The chapter was fun to write all the same.


	23. Thanks Hotland for throwing me into exceptionally terrifying situations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It goes from almost asleep to "Oh shit I'm gonna die" pretty fast. Woohoo.

We hadn’t traveled very far before we reached a ledge that seemed impassable but I was already tired enough so why not use some more energy to shift over it? I shifted into a massive bird of prey and grabbed Sans by the shoulders before beating my wings and taking off sending tornadoes of sand and dust in all directions and lifting him off the ground. 

We spent the entire trip being silent. I was silent mostly because the heat and exhaustion was getting to me and Sans was quite because he couldn’t think of anything to say to fix his mistake. I wasn’t mad at him anymore really. I had only been frustrated at him for making the stupid decision and then not letting me help him fix it.

I dropped him a couple inches off the ground on the other side before making a half figure eight in the air and dropping out of the sky myself. Landing perfectly balanced (I'm really loving my tail right now.) on two feet where Sans’ weight had forced him to catch himself. Like in video games when the knight drops out of the sky and they hit on there knees but they use a fist to support them? Like that. Just without the armour. 

We continued walking in complete silence through a big open set of giant, dark grey doors that had red carvings in them that shined brilliantly despite the light of this place. The ground changed from sand to piping. They were narrow and there were many of them the pale coloring of them hiding how dangerous they really were. I think that I preferred the slippery annoying sand that got in my shoes to these things that jumped and sagged under my weight. 

Sans walked on the other side of the piping giving me a little space but not so much that if something happened he wouldn’t be able to stop me from tumbling into the boiling abyss below. With his distance and wary glances it almost felt like we had gotten into a fight. I suspect he thought I was mad at him and trying to let me cool off a little before trying to get all friendly again. I really wasn’t mad at him I just had no idea how to start to tell him that.

We approached another launch pad this one arrow turned so it faced backward for a couple seconds before facing forwards again. The middle island that stretches south had a pad that pointed east and west to the two islands in those directions. 

“South?” I asked Sans approaching the gray, steaming arrow which faced backwards. He nodded. I was able to make an educated guess that if the arrow was facing the way we came it would launch me that way so I waited ready to jump on it when it switched and… There! I leaped on it and I went soaring through the air landing gracefully on the island in front of us. Sans followed still nowhere near as graceful as I was but not having to do any over dramatic poses to not break his arm.

I waited for him to shake the tingling out of his legs before continuing suddenly wishing for the pipes again when I excitedly ran into the sand that went up to my ankles. I squeaked as it brushed against my leg and jumped onto the not entirely stable pipe and I definitely heard something snap under me… Suddenly the one pale pipe that had been under me was not there anymore…  _ I fucked up.  _ Instead of the comforting piping directly under my feet it was lava hundreds of feet down and lots of it…  _ Shit shit shit.  _ Every self preservation instinct I had kicked in  and my genetic make up went insane. I changed into random animals and I think at some point I had the head of a rhino, the tail of a snake, the legs of a mountain goat, the claws of a lion and the wings of a buzzard.  _ Wait I can do something with this…  _ I dug my claws into the wall. It was a little crumbly but it held after my my claws dulled on the rocks making a horrible screeching noise. I was able to heave myself up a couple feet farther away from the volcano beneath me. The goats hooves were impeccable for this, and I was able to cling to the tiniest of ledges. I got the rest of everything else under control. I thought about using the wings but decided that I didn’t want to fall anymore trying to get liftoff. Now hypothetically I could’ve become a much smaller bird but the poor thing wouldn’t have been able to stand the heat. I made it so I was mostly human so I wasn’t nearly as heavy and started heaving myself up the cliff edge. Sans came sprinting over to the edge almost spiraling over himself. He glanced over his eyes wide in terror.

“Hi! How’s the weather up there?” I called up to him. His eyes snapped to me.

“Riley! Oh thank god! Umm… don’t fall. Please don’t fall.  Just umm keep doing what you're doing and I help you up over the edge as soon as I can okay?” He said the grief draining out of his face and some color returning to it.

“Yeah! Okay.  Got it!” I growled heaving myself up again.

“Watch the lava fall…” He warned and I glanced over springing from the wall was a fountain of the lazy liquid. I steered clear of it and managed to get myself to the point where Sans heaved me a tiny bit off the wall and pulled me up onto the *proper* side of the cliff. “I gotcha. I gotcha.” He growled as I struggled to get back to the wall when he first grabbed me. He dragged us a little ways away from the cliff. 

There was a slightly awkward pause where we sorta just sat there in the sand looked at each other like we couldn’t believe how fast it went from  _ Yawn.  _ To  _ Shit shit shit shit shit.  _ To  _ Okay I’m alright.  _ To  _ I think I love you but hey I just almost died so maybe not.  _ He suddenly just held me to him nuzzling into my neck. I nuzzled into him realizing how close to dead I had just gotten. We held each other like there was not going to be a tomorrow. I could feel myself shaking in his arms.

“It’s okay.  It’s okay.  We’re gonna be okay… Just please never do that to me again.” He murmured

“If I can help it, I won’t.”

“Good. I don’t think I could handle you being gone.” He whispered and we didn’t let go until long after it got uncomfortably warm between us. When we did he stayed plastered to my side like a calf to it’s mother. Keep his uninjured hand on my elbow when we were forced up onto the piping again by the ending wrinkles of sand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nobody died! YAY!


	24. Hello everyone my name is very very dead

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Exactly what it sounds like

Several uneventful miles of unstable piping later and we stepped onto the orange sand again letting out a sigh of relief as it settled between our toes though our shoes. We launched over another gap on an unmoving arrow. To the middle of some steaming hot (stable) piping. I puttered over it quickly not liking the feeling of the hot-coal like pipe on my shoes and of course the sand had to turn into more of the unstable pipes. These ones had spots that were fortified so I spent the entire stretch going from fortified pipe to fortified pipe getting to the edge of a gray moving platform that moved away from me before turning to Sans and waiting for him to catch up. 

“What have you never seen a conveyor belt before?” He asked when I stood on the edge of the horizontal escalator timidly.

“Is that all it is?”

“Yeah.  It moves fast so you’ll probably end up on your stomach the first couple times but it’s not dangerous.” He warned gently pushing me onto it.

I squeaked in surprise and immediately slipped on the fast moving plastic. On my belly before the first turn. I struggled to my feet only to be thrown onto my side at the sudden whipping swivel. Sans on the other hand stepped on with his eyes closed and three little z’s made of bones floated into the air popping when they got above his slumped head. His lips stretched wide in a grin like he couldn’t move his mouth even though I knew better.  _ Shit.  _ The path winded around again and I flipped onto fours to face Sans my teeth bared and my tail spazzed out like a maniac. Sans opened an eye and winked at me and I rolled my eyes he hit a turn and the only thing that happened was three more z’s spawned near his face again  _ That mother--!   _ I was sent tumbling over onto my side again.  _ I give up.  _ I laid on my side deciding my chances of winning were better if I  let the conveyor belt choose how I was going to take this trip. It tossed me onto my back with another rush of air. Sans just chilled with his hands in his pockets and spawning little z’s because he’s a jerk sometimes. But I guess he kind of earned a little bit of a break. I was flipped onto my side.  _ A nap sounds really nice right about now.  _ Back onto my back.  _ Yeah we should just sleep. That sounds really nice.  _ I was thrown one last time before I surfaced going a couple inches into the sand not caring that it piled behind me and found every wrinkle in my clothes to bury itself into. A couple minutes later Sans stepped off the escalator.

“What are you doing?” The ground under the sand was actually relatively cool and felt really nice.

“Chilling with best friend.  What’s up?” I grumbled sleepily.

“Ummm no. No napping yet. Come on. I know you’re tired. I am too but we’re almost to where I grew up. We can sleep there okay?” 

“How long?”

“Fifteen minutes to get there and probably another twenty to look around, which you don’t have to do.” He said and I sighed and heaved myself to my feet shaking the sand out of my hair. “Thank you.” We crossed some more piping without problem and the amount of sand was starting to piss me off. Ahead of us there was a marble white building with the word “Lab” written above a white door in big red bubble letters. “Alpyhs might be sleeping in here so we gotta be quiet okay?” He said.

“Alphys?”

“Our current royal scientist. We’ll come see if she’s around tomorrow.  She’s usually here to make sure that her amalgamate is doing alright.”

“I thought you said they were free to live their lives.”

“All except one. It was the first amalgamate and the most unstable. It chose to stay in the true lab so it couldn’t hurt anybody. Alphys reluctantly let it. She makes sure it’s surviving just fine and she tries to help it become stable enough to rejoin everyone else but it hasn’t been able to so far.” He explained we were stopped outside the white doors now.

“That’s unfortunate.”

“Yeah we’re trying as hard as we can but… Things don’t always work out the way they should.” He said before walking into the dark room.

He suddenly started doing the shaky thing again. I took his hand and forced him across the room to the other door that led outside again. Basically done with this for today. It was too dark to see much besides the way out and the outline of…. A tar puddle? 

“Riley… Riley…. Move it along…” He whimpered very quietly his gaze set on the tar puddle which whipped around hearing his voice. It was huge. It’s face broken and cracked and it matched the face that had jumpscared me from Sans’ memories…  _ That… That’s not a good thing.  _ I turned to Sans. I don’t think it saw us just yet.

“I’ll get it’s attention. You need to run like hell. Get the hell out of here and don’t come back. I’ll catch up.”

“He’s dangerous Rye…”

“I’ll figure something out.”

“Please don’t do this...”

“How do you suggest we get out of here otherwise?” I hissed quietly and the tar puddle’s blank white expression was locking on to our position ever so slowly.

“Don’t you dare die on me got it?” He growled.

“I’ll do my best.” I shifted into a panther and stalked away from Sans to Gaster’s other side. Just as the puddle’s eyes found Sans I lunged at it gripping it’s skull in my claws and forcing its attention the other way. Sans looked like he couldn’t figure out what the hell he was supposed to be doing.  He moved towards the door out but couldn’t seem to stop staring at the struggle. Gaster screamed under me.

“SO YOU DID CHOOSE A CANDIDATE!! HOW UNFORTUNATE!” His jeer scared the shit out of me and the gravelly noise sent Sans turning tail and fleeing. Gaster threw me off smashing me into a wall and gave chase to his terrified son who honestly looked beyond traumatized. Gaster was gaining on him.  _ Not if I can help it, maggot.  _ I shifted into a cheetah and threw myself onto him again sending us sloshing into a wall.  _ Again.  _ I shifted again into a lion and I felt my strength draining.  _ No gotta keep fighting…  _ We writhed in a half molten heap of claws, teeth and bone. He realized he couldn’t out strength me so took a different approach. He controlled his tar and it flowed around me trying desperately to dunk my head under knowing I’d be too heavy to fight the slowing substance. “Or maybe you’d rather I did this…?” He snarled trying to force some of the tar down my windpipe. I roared in pain and the world around me went black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Cues dark darker yet darker*  
> Anyways sorry if I don't have too much to say in these because if I try to write something I have a mini anxiety attack and write an enitre novel explaining EVERYTHING so I choose to not do that to you guys. But if you do want more thoughts and comments I have let me know because I figure me writing essay in the notes is annoying but I'm still new at this so I could be wrong


	25. *I'm Sans. Sans the skeleton

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Panicked emotional train wrecks!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alrighty! So this is In Sans' point of view! Please note that otherwise this won't make any sense. Also past violence/rape references here sooo if that's gonna set you off, set this down and really think about it before reading this or don't read it at all if it's really bad. Yeah that's all for now!

I sprinted out the lab door. Gaster’s voice bringing back all of the pain. All of the reasons I had tried to forget him and what he did.

I whipped around a corner and looked around.  _ I wonder if the barrier is still there.  _ I turned the corner again and sure enough the false wall was still there.  _ Does he still remember that this is here…? _

I heard screaming that sounded female and demonic laughter that sounded unused and raw.  _ Riley. No no no Riley… I’m so sorry I don’t know what I was thinking… Hold on I’m coming!  _ I snarled and pulled away from safety and started running back up the staircase.

**NO! No you’re not** _.  _ The voice that had been telling me I needed to own up this whole time said firmly.

_ What the hell? Of course I’m going.  That’s my fucking girlfriend I just ditched with Gaster! I’m going to be brave and kick Gaster’s ass. _

**She can handle herself. If she can’t, don’t let her sacrifice be in vain. Get to safety first then think of a revenge plan** **.** I hated myself so much but slowly moved back down the stairs. **If one of them doesn’t come find us by tomorrow at nine than you can kick his ass. I won’t stop you.**

_ I fucking hate you. If she doesn’t come back I blame you and jumping off a bridge.  _ I spat in rage smashing the riverman’s boat as I passed it.

**That seems a bit extreme and that means her death would be for nothing.** It was MOCKING ME.

_ I could’ve saved her.  _

**No. You would’ve froze up again and just gotten in her way** **.** ERGH.

_ I hate you. I hate you. I hate you.  _ I kept repeating to myself as I passed through the wall and descended a tiny staircase.

**Hate me as much as you want.  It doesn’t change the facts.** I took a right into pitch darkness. I lit my eye on fire for flashlight purposes. The magic chasm tightening around my ribs and hip bones. 

_ What if she does survive? How will she find this place? _

**Trust her. She can shift into anything she wants. She’ll find you** **.**

_ What if Gaster passes the barrier. I know it doesn’t let soulless ones in but will it let black souls in? _

**We’ll find out, won’t we?**

_ Can I kill you? _

**Do you have a deathwish?**

_ Fuck.  _ I stalked out into a ghost city. It once was massive.... Can I get back to my childhood… Yup there it is.  _ Can I punch you? _

**Haha. Summon Snap. That’ll make you feel better.**

_ I don’t want to punch him! _

**Not to punch, stupid! Just to hang with. He always makes you feel better.**

I sighed and summoned all six of my Gaster blasters plus Snap. The six adults walked around all my sides through the cold, empty, colorless, music-less streets sensing that something was wrong.

I approached the once ornate house that was now rundown and boarded up like much of the rest of this godforsaken place.

“Ares get me in.” I told the alpha dragon. He nodded and ripped open the door careful not to break the lock. Snap sat in my hand his tail wagging. I wasn’t even sure how I got Snap or his littermates, Bonegnasher, Ripfang, Sandragnosa (Sand-drog-nsa), Kasheea (caw-esha) and Onyxya (onic-tcha).  All of them were male and all brothers, so was the entire litter.  Hell I’m not even sure how the first generation was born. They just came to me when I turned 18. A couple years later they brought me the younger batch. Snap was the runt which made him easy to train not for combat but as a companion instead since I couldn’t ever summon more than six of the adults to fight for me at a time.  Besides Snap was cute. 

Ares led the way inside the dark house that only reopened more wounds. I tried to focus on Snap more but he reminded me of how much Riley had loved him. It hurt to even think anything even remotely having to do with any of the letters in her name. Or the nerdy names I gave my dragons. I suspected that she would’ve liked them all.

“Ares stay with me.”

“Mars I want you to go see if the laundry room is still usable. I want to make this place at least a little livable.”

“Hades check Papyrus’ old room see if there isn’t anything of use. Mom usually kept crosswords up there if you find any bring them to me. Oh and a pen.”

“Pluto check my room. I don’t know what I had in there but if it looks useful bring it to me.”

“Oro I want you to look around the outside just check to make sure Gaster isn’t lurking around somewhere.”

“Montu I want you to find a place to hide in case Gaster comes around. Stay in sight of the door.” I ordered each dragon in turn.

I liked keeping Ares, the largest and oldest nearby in case I really him needed to come to my side in a fight.

Mars was named after the Roman god of war. You’ll notice with all these names I’m very intrigued by human history it’s always weird to think the monsters weren’t the only people they tried to chase out because we were different.

Hades… Well he’s Hades. He behaved a little more like a puppy than a wolf. Unlike the rest of them who were a pack. However Hades made up for his silly nature because he was a RELENTLESS little sucker in combat.

Pluto was quite the opposite of his Greek counterpart in personality. Not in fighting tactics but Pluto was laid back and sleepy most of the time (Much like myself now that I think about it.)

‘Oro’s name came from  Polynesian mythology and his name took a little digging to find but he seemed to be the most peaceable of all them when I wasn’t angry.  If I was… OH BOY. He was meaner than a mother moose protecting its calf.

And Finally Montu. Named after the Egyptian god of war and that happened to also be a sun god and he awkwardly enough happened to be the sneakiest of all them. Which was nice because then I always had another one the enemy wasn’t counting on. Montu also was the smartest, finding a way to enchant his claws and teeth so they had a poison like film over them. Chara had HATED Montu for that. HATED HIM.

Even though at the time I was fighting Chara things really weren’t going my way and I really just stopped caring. Making my soul incredibly weak and making it super easy to kill me if he could get his hands on me. Which he could only do letting me fall asleep. That’s how much of a train wreck I had been at that time. I fell asleep in a fight. I’m a train wreck I know.

I set Snap on a old couch and let him gnaw on it’s armrest before taking Ares up a different staircase than the one Hades and Pluto went up. This one led to my parents old room. I flicked on the lights. Their bed was still exactly as they had left it the day mom died. A mess. As a kid I had always just assumed they never made it but by the age eight when Gaster started doing more… Sexual things to me despite me saying ‘no’ I was able to figure out what had really been going on. At that time I still had no idea why my mom stayed with him if he blatantly ignored a ‘no’. Now as an adult I was aware of the difference between what had been going on here, a totally consented and love based encounter and what Gaster had done to me which is what we would call rape, ladies and gentlemen.

I decided that if I (and hopefully Riley) were going to be staying here for a little bit we were NOT sleeping in Papyrus’ or my old rooms. But it also made me a tiny bit uncomfortable to be sleeping on the same sheets I had (probably) been conceived on… haha nope. I levitated the sheets up and threw them into a corner letting them crumple in a heap on the floor. I heard boney claws sliding on the stairs up and I turned around to see Mars slipping up the wooden staircase with a container of laundry soap in his mouth. He presented it to me proudly glancing at Ares searching for approval.

“Good job buddy.  This is exactly what I needed.” I said rubbing the top of his skull between where his ears would be and he made a noise that was supposed to be a purr. But it in reality came out as a weird growling noise that sounded suspiciously like claws on a chalkboard. “Can you go start a spiral staircase battle formation with Montu for me?” It nodded excitedly and jumped down the entire damn staircase smashing at the bottom making the entire house rattle when his weight smashed into the ground. I levitated the sheet pile up again and *walked* down the staircase. Apparently the house was still getting power so I turned on the lights above the kitchen counter and brought my load of laundry into the side room with the machines. Stuffing them into the washing machine and dropping a couple more of the soap packs into it than was probably necessary but… I’d rather not think about the kind of stuff on those sheets… All with my magic not having to touch anything except having to pry open the washing machine door. Look mom no hands!!! Wait… She can’t look… She’s dead… Well that’s a bummer. Umm…

In case you can’t tell I’m trying not to let myself melt down into a ocean of tears right here, right now, middle of the floor at like 8 o’clock monster p.m. I’m really trying and I’m really failing.

_ I just left her to die. I just ran like a coward. I AM a coward. What the hell? I sacrificed everything for everyone I loved and than when I was confronted with him again. When I was given a golden opportunity to kick ass. I froze like a deer! WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK??? Do I not care about her enough to let her die at the hands of Gaster? She could be being tortured by him right now and I’m doing laundry? She could be dead and I’m worried about not getting anywhere near any bodily fluids that are probably not even there anymore? I’m a sick bastard. I don’t deserve Riley.  _ I shoved Ares out of the doorway after starting the washing machine. Tears running down my face. Ares backed out of the way quickly knocking a vase over with his tail and I rounded on him.

“You little shit!” I thundered and immediately regretted my decision. Turning away again. “Sorry.” I whispered hoarsely. My soul screamed at me that I was the piece of shit if anyone was. Ares looked a little hurt. “Sorry bud.  I didn’t mean it. You’ve been a great companion for all these years.  So, thank you.” I feebly said again rubbing one the bones in his forearm as I walked casually under him to pick up the shattered vase. I got about halfway out from under his tail and he just decided he was done and his hindquarters dropped down on my spine sending me flopping onto the floor “ARES!!!” I cried out as his tail hung just over my nose cavity. I didn’t remember him being this heavy. 

Hades approached me and dropped a book of crosswords just out of reach and spat up a pen with it. “Thank you.” I heaved out of breath from trying to struggle out from under the alpha male. Hades padded over to Ares and yipped at him.  The bigger male responded with a much louder bay. Hades rolled his eyes and stole one of Ares’ ribs and charged off with it. Forcing Ares to get up and give a limping chase to him roaring in rage. The dragons were a lot more fragile than I was because they were built to be weapons not actual living creatures. 

I spent a couple minutes levitating the vase shards up and putting them in the trash can by the counter. **And this was mom's favorite too…**

_ No! You don’t feel anything anymore remember?  _ I snapped at the part of me that had killed Riley.

**She told us to start to feel again.**

_ You killed her so… Die in a ditch. _

**I’m the reason you’re alive right now and the reason there's a chance she survived.**

_ She didn’t. She would’ve found us by now _

**Did you feel the tearing you did when Corsiva died? Did I miss something?**

_ No… I just know… _

**If you didn’t there’s still a chance.**

_ We’ll see but I wouldn’t count on it.  _ I said unimpressed.

**I won’t do what your father did if that’s what you’re worried about.** It vowed.

_ Good because Gaster definitely described his insanity as starting as a little voice in his head that told him to get some sleep if he hadn’t for a while. Which you’ve done before.  The second stage was it telling him to save himself if shit went wrong even if he would’ve usually saved his assistants first. Which sounds eerily familiar.  _

**I know. But I have no intention of walking down the same path as he did. I’m sorry but no girl is worth that. Not even the person you’ve fallen in love with.**

_ Riley might be. _

**She’s not. I love her as much as you do but she’s not worth fucking everyone else up for.**

_ I hope that stays true for you especially if Gaster’s back. _

**Oh shit Gaster’s back.** It said registering this for the first time and it clicked. Panic rose in my throat and I called Ares back to me and told Hades to get into his spiral staircase position (Spiral staircase is basically where the dragons shoot a blast at the opponent and teleport to the end of the line to shoot again when their turn comes. It’s actually super useful.)

_ Holy shit. Ummm fuck... No! Stop bringing me these memories I can’t handle them right now.  _ The self preservation part of my brain brought back a memory of Papyrus trying out his magic for the first time on the couch that Snap was chewing up. I picked up and dismissed the baby dragon.  _ Shit shit shit shit.  _ Montu scooted aside for Mars and Hades to start the formation and he tipped over a table that I specifically remember knocking into with a toy car as a kid to try and get baby Papyrus to smile.  _ Nope, Nope, Nope.  _ I dismissed Montu in a screaming ball of flame and turned around before hearing glass break. It definitely came from my old room  _ Nope nope no. I left her.  What am I thinking? What am I doing here?  _ I pelted up the second smaller staircase and blew open the door to my old room which was so old it burst off its hinges.

“What happened in here?” I bellowed my eye glowing in rage teeth bared and my shoulders rising with my breathing like a volcano before it erupts.

‘Oro’s head stuck into the room through the broken window that led outside. Pluto stood on his hind legs his front talons pressed against the window. Both of them stared at me eyes huge in fear and confusion at my frenzy  _ They don’t understand how serious this is.  _ I stood there seething for a minute before dismissing both of them without moving.

_ I swear I will END all of them if they do not stop making shit happen.  _ Of course they couldn’t hear this and therefore caused more trouble I heard water from the master bedroom. Howling in rage I teleported across the house to find Ares with his head half the bathtub lapping at the water his claw on the faucet control. I hadn’t even notice him leave my side. He saw me bust open the door and his froze his tongue been drenched in the probably ice cold water.

“I thought you KNEW better than this.” I breathed almost inaudibly my voice dripping with venomous miasma and he tried to turn off the water his claw slipping on the metal surface but I really wasn’t in the mood for anymore bullshit today. I dismissed him quickly before turning around to meet Mars’ blue eyes he scared the shit out of me and I dismissed him too. Hades was the last one I had and I suddenly felt super vulnerable as I picked up the crossword book from the downstairs floor. But I couldn’t re-summon them immediately after being a giant ass to all of them. I spat in frustration and plopped onto the couch that Snap had been chewing up. 

I stared at the cover of the puzzle book for a long time losing more and more control of my emotions the more I did but unable to look away. Hades stepped forward and tried to take it from me and I barked at him and dismissed him before he could recognize what he had done wrong. 

Now alone in the dark, creaking, musicless house I looked back at the cover. I drew my mouth back in a snarl like it could see me getting hissy at it. Eventually I just threw it at the front window and the jolt of euphoria that shot through me when it shattered the window with the sheer amount of force I had thrown it with was intense. But it still wasn’t enough.

I carefully took off my sweater and threw it across the room into a corner where I wouldn’t be able to see the old piece of blue fabric. Still the satisfaction of hearing the zipper clink against the wall wasn’t enough. I stalked up into my old room and punched the closest thing to me. Which happened to be my old dresser. It shattered into a million splinters I didn’t bat an eye as they stuck into my bones ripping them out again almost tearing up at the pain but watching my blood stain the white shirt I was wearing was more than worth it. I exploded in a wave of power. Throwing the rest of the room into shambles. I then ripped the door frame out of the wall (don’t ask me how) and sent my fist through the door before storming through into Papyrus’ old room and sent a hand blast at the crib in the back of the room the explosion of splinters satisfied me way too much but I still craved more. I wanted blood. I than targeted the blast at my hand the power in my palms rising again.

**No! NO! STOP! Please stop! I know you’re mad but please don’t take it out on yourself! You’ll get a chance to rip Gaster to shreds. I promise!** The voice pledged and I stared at my palm coming out of the blood lust and realizing what I had been about to do.

_ … _

**Please… Don’t do this you’re better than that. You’re better than him.**

_ Am I? _

**Yes.** I growled and slammed the door shut and went to swap the laundry. Before going back to the couch and flopping down summoning Snap and letting him do a dance on my ribs. He couldn’t understand. 

_ She loved Snap…  _ I thought petting the baby dragon my eyes filling with water.

**I’m sorry.** The tiny skeleton cocked his head at me like he was confused as to why the tears slowly started to drip down my face as I rubbed his skull affectionately. He stuck his tongue out at me closing his eyes and it made my tears come down harder. He tried a bunch of different things but nothing seemed to cheer me up.

_ Thanks to you we’re stuck here.  _ I scolded harshly getting up at the sound of the drying machine beeping.

**What’dya mean?** I redressed the bed with its warm sheets sitting on a smaller red couch watching Snap try again to cheer me up by going onto his hind legs and jumped side to side of my chest his paws up to the middle of his neck his eyes closed. He was really trying I knew he was.

_ I mean that Gaster can look and sound exactly like Riley but not be her. How will we know it’s her?  _ I pointed out jolting up as I heard a knock on the big wooden front door dismissing Snap. It had been about three hours since I had gotten here… Whoever this was knew where I was and it scared me too much

“ Sans? Please c-c-Can I come in? It’s fucking freezing out here and it’s possible I may be dying.”


	26. Hi! I'm back again!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I should really add drug references into the tags/warnings.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Back to Riley's point of view guys! Yay moving around this should only happen once or twice more after about 3 more POV shifts this time and I'm only doing it to explain Sans' thought process and some foreshadowing not to confuse you I promise.

The world wasn’t gone per say...Just not… Apparent. It was like I was in someone else’s head.

_ “Good… He picked a smart candidate.”  _ Gaster’s voice said around me making me whip around. He wasn’t there but I heard him laugh.  _ “Little girl you have much to learn about this world. Let me help you.” _

“Why should I trust you? You tortured Sans for 15 years.  What makes you think I will take your word over his?”

_ Snarky too.  _ This one sounded like Gaster’s but it was softer, gentler, more sane sounding.

“Who are you?” I called to the new one.

_ “Don’t listen to him he’s the over-loving moron who let me take over this body.”  _ Gaster scoffed.

_ Hey! Let her ask a couple questions. You are offering to show her how things work around here.  _ The new one retorted.  _ Riley my name is Gaster and while this monster technically is also Gaster he is simply a demon I brought upon myself. This is my fault. I’m sorry. _

“I don’t know if I’m buying this bullshit.”

_ Don’t. Think of me as someone to kill not as someone to save. I shouldn’t have reacted like this.  _ Hey, at least it was owning up.

_ “Fool I thought I said we feel NOTHING now.”  _ Insane Gaster chidded.

_ You feel nothing. Doesn’t stop me from feeling things. Which by extension means you feel things. Let’s not forget that we are one in the same being. We just switched roles.  _ This new guy didn’t seem to fear insane Gaster at all.

“Hey insane Gaster-guy! Why don’t you go back into whatever hole you crawled up from and die there? Let your son live in peace!  After all the suffering he’s been through to make you happy.”

_ “No can do, pretty one.” _

“Don’t you dare call me that.”

_ “And who’s gonna stop me pretty girl? Your precious boyfriend who ran with his tail between his legs when he saw me? Oh wait don’t tell me.  You're going to call Sam! He’ll kick my ass for sure!”  _ He jeered and I felt rage boiling inside me at the sound of Sam’s name. 

“How do you know who that is?”

“ _ Well, pretty girl, right now you’re inside MY head. Which is why you can’t see shit. Because I’m not giving you anything to see. But all the while I’m inside YOUR head searching through your memories and finding your weaknesses. _

_ Let’s see what we got here.... Oh so you're theatre troupe is going to be performing….  _

_ Ma… Mac…. Mac and Cheese on stage in a couple weeks? Interesting.  It’ll be good won’t it? You are, after all, the one in charge of the lights… It’d be a shame if you were to say… Drop one on yourself wouldn’t it? _

_ Oh and what’s this? I didn’t know that Sans was okay with you being with another guy at the same time… Robert huh? I bet you call him Robby when you wake up next to him after your little hookups. You probably think he’s better than Sans, but you keep Sans around as a backup.  _

_ Poor thing. Who’s going to have be the bearer of bad news? He seems to really like you and think you’re into him. You really do pride yourself in being a good liar huh. Interesting…” _

“Hey, hey, hey, hey that’s bullshit. Go stuff that up your ass where it came from. I am a HORRIBLE liar and I know our relationship is new still but Sans trusts me to be committed to him and I am. I can only hope for the same from him.”

_ “Oh no the boy’s committed to you alright. I’ve seen the way he looks at you. But you… You seem a little less than impressed by him.”  _ He kept trying to break me apart by destroying what self esteem I had… Everything he was spouting was bullshit and lies but he was waiting for the anxiety to tear me apart.

“Get out of my head! You will not break me like you did Sans!” I snapped closing my brain off to him. I felt him retreat.

_ I told you she had teeth.  _ The calmer Gaster said.

“ _ Little girl! Let me back in!”   _ He tried and tried and tried and each time I felt my defenses start to crumble. But I stayed strong against him.

“Bye.” I said and kicked the wall of his mind repeatedly until he screamed in agony and spasmed making the world go really and truly black again.

“ _ Nooooo!!!!” _

_ You fucked up. _

I was shot back into reality and found myself lying still as a mountain and had a mouthful of tar trying to force itself down my throat. I chomped my jaws shut and cut the source of it off and just ran. Gaster came screaming back into reality moments after I escaped the gooey puddle. He jumped at me trying to catch me, but mistimed his jump, still a little dizzy from the brain convulsions. He smashed into a pink flowery poster that said “Kissy Kissy Mew Mew” on it and slid down the wall almost comically taking the poster with him. It fluttering towards a desk in the middle of the room that I guess Gaster had been filing through before we made ourselves known to him. 

Okay so imagine this a lion comes running out of a lab it's mouth full of tar looking over its shoulder every 0.2 seconds like it’s life depended on it at the same trying planting it’s nose into the ground and inhaling like it was trying to be Scooby Doo or something. But then this super melted tar looking guy comes running out from the lab chasing the Scooby, tar, potential drug addict lion and the lion JUMPS OFF of a super steep staircase OVER a smashed piece of wood with a dog’s head at it’s front and turns into a turtle and submerges itself in water that had visible ice chunks on it’s surface. 

That what this poor Grim Reaper looking guy had to come across. But stay with me here. It gets better. He looked at Gaster, calmly walked down the staircase and stepped onto a boat that had been splinters seconds before muttering,

“Same shit as always,” and summoned a oar and paddled away like he saw NOTHING. No drug addict loins. No I-got-hit-by-a-gas-truck-(get-it-cause-I’m-tar? Nevermind) psychopaths. No Scooby Doo turtles. Nothing. It was the BEST thing ever.

Now onto why I was trying to be Scooby Doo smoking some form of drug. Because I was looking for Sans’ fear scent. I could track that and find out where he went. Hence how I knew to jump off the stairs instead of going into the dark chasm the Grim Reaper man came from. Don’t ask me how he did it. I have no idea he stepped in between two broken boat pieces and it was fixed. NO IDEA. 

Anyways I waited under the fucking freezing cold water and waited periodically opening my mouth so I didn’t just have a mouthful of tar for an eternity before I dared to heave myself out of the water and shift into a human again. Shaking from how soaked my clothes were and how FUCKING COLD THAT WATER HAD BEEN. WHY AM I SUCH A DUMBASS??? 

Gaster was at the top of the staircase and he saw me next to immediately and jumped at me again smashing into the cold water destroying a thin layer of ice that had formed on the surface. He coughed and spluttered doggy paddle struggling to the surface startled by how cold the water had been and it gave me a second to relocate Sans’ scent which had turned into a rage scent less of a fear scent. It led into a GODDAMN WALL. Not the FUCKING time Sans. Not the fucking time. Gaster screeched and jumped at me again.  _ Shit.  _ I instinctively jumped away from him which was in the wall. I braced to feel claws rip open my belly but instead the only pain I felt was when my head made contact with the bottom of a staircase.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay for a more silly chapter. I'm really proud of myself because I really can't write silly chapters.


	27. Chapter 27

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Woo insane man exposition time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now we're in 3rd person/ Gaster's POV just so we're not confused

_ No one is happy with this... I hope you know that.  _ The Gaster that once controlled this being said as the new and improved Gaster summoned a large violet colored dragon to try and blast open the false door that wouldn’t let him in.

**No one is happy? Who are you kidding? I’m EXTREMELY happy and that’s all that matters. They’re so scared of my power. It’s beautiful. I’m a god to them. They run and flee. They scurry but they will not get away. They will perish.  Their blood will be spilled as PAINFULLY as I can make it.**

_ Is it as beautiful as seeing your wife and sons living their lives in peace?  _ SHAM the beam of purple light smashed into the door but it held. He dismissed the useless creature.

**I was not the one who was attacked to them. You were.**

_ We are the same entity.  _

**I never understood why you liked them so much. Always too loud. Too demanding. Too… Messy. I helped clean up.** He stalked back up the staircase and went into the lab again. The dragon drained a lot of power… Retreat again and recover so next time… Next time they would not get away.

_ I shouldn't have let you in with Corsiva’s death _

**Oh… But I was already present long before her death. That event simply handed me the only copy of the key to my reign.**


	28. Hi guys I'm back again!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Panic attacks!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Riley's POV again peeps.

I  saw a flash of purple energy hit the wall where Gaster tried to break through it but wasn’t able to break through to his prey cowering on the other side. I had hit the bottom of the staircase hard.  _ Ow…  _ I ran a quick diagnosis. Nothing's broken. Nothing’s stained. I coughed and my spit tasted eerily like blood and tar.  _ Okay we’ll check it out when we see to it that Sans is safe…  _ I got to my feet trying desperately to ignore the screeches outside the door that sounded too much like a non existent monster I had spent my life running from. Except Gaster was very real. The taste of blood and cement in my mouth told me that much.  _ Okay focus.  Where does the scent go?  _ I found his trail again I followed it in the increasingly dark tunnels.  _ Sans I’m trusting you right now…  _ The caves got narrow enough that I had to make myself about as narrow as at twig to not brush at least one of the walls and even then I was tall enough to scrape the roof.

Eventually a breeze froze me to the core and resizing again didn’t make it so I was pressed against the wall anymore. My eyes adjusted and I saw a dark and quiet city spanning out in front of me. I followed his scent through streets and found an ornate looking house that was boarded up. By a shattered window I saw a green crossword puzzle book I took a deep breath and knocked and nobody came to answer it.

“Sans? Please c-c-Can I come in? It’s fucking freezing out here and  it’s possible I may be dying.” I choked on my words watching in fear as tar oozed out of my mouth.  _ What the hell did he do to me? _

“How do I know it’s you not Gaster disguised as you?” A tiny voice responded.

“Remember that you thought I was mad at you for cutting yourself but I really wasn’t I was just tired and remember that I almost died?” I said spitting out some of the tar and blood combination onto the ground. The door opened revealing a traumatized Sans.

“Riley! You lived!” He said excitedly but I stopped the inbound hug.

“Hey I’d love a hug. I promise I would but I don’t want you getting sick too.”

“Sick?” He looked like he had been crying…  _ Poor guy.  _ He also had blood stains on his shirt which made me nervous

“I got some combination of tar and blood going on here and I don’t know why it’s happening I don’t want to put you at risk. But what happened to you?”

“Oh, he tried to force choke you right? Here come on that’s easy to fix if you survived the initial attack all you have to do is rinse out your mouth and spit what you get.” He dodged the question. He brought me inside and he brought me a cup of water and pulled my hair out of the way so I could deal with the remaining tar. After that the tar stopped coming and I was grateful. 

“You look cold… Umm... here there’s a shower in the master bedroom.  You go use that I’ll dry off your clothes.” He said and I looked around the house. There were two staircases one that led farther up into a brightly lit room and the other leading up to a dark hallway. The counters were a black granite color and the couches in the living room looked nice but I really was more worried about not dying of hypothermia than sitting down and watching TV with the family right now. He guided me up the longer staircase into the lit room.  “Here.  When you’re ready, set your clothes here and I’ll make sure they're not sopping by the time you're ready for them.” He said motioning towards the base of the bathroom door. I nodded and slipping in turning on some hot water more than excited to warm up and try to register what was going on now.


	29. (*Riley my turn again... no stop! RILEY!!)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sans has a mental conversation with himself

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sans POV one more time

I tried super hard not to pace around the outside of the door. Simply because she could probably hear me and she’d probably freak herself out thinking I was waiting to hear the shower running before sneaking in there and a. Murder her or b. Rape her THEN murder her. Neither of which was the plan. I was just trying to let the fact of her survival sink in.

**I told you.**

_ You can still go die in a ditch. _

**Calm your non-existant ear-holes.**

_ Word choice? _

**I was gonna say something else but the anatomy didn’t quite line up right.**

_ Hi my name is Sans I am male and equipped with male reproductive organs. I don’t believe we’ve met. _

**Oh so it’s okay for Riley to almost call you kinky but not for me to almost use the wrong term even though I am fully aware of what this body is capable of. I live in it to and have to look at it everyday too, ya know.**

_ Well she IS my girlfriend and if she’s calling me kinky than that could be taken as a good thing. Am I wrong? _

**That’s still a ways off you know.**

_ Doesn’t mean I can’t wish.  _

**Oh my god…**

_ Says the individual of the male species. _

**I’m only considered male because I reside in a male body. Technically I’m neither.**

_ What if you were female? Would that be awkward? _

**Says the guy who is 100% chill with sleeping in the same bed as his girlfriend of what… One day?**

_ We’ve also been helping each other out with nightmares and shit since long before now. I think of it more as a sleepover every night. _

**Give me some credit here. It’s is a little fishy… No bone-zone yet mister!**

_ I’m not twelve.  Calm down. _

**You sure act like you are.**

_ IF SHE’S NOT IN FOR IT I SURE AS HELL AM NOT GOING TO MAKE HER DO ANYTHING. SO WHY DON’T YOU GO BACK TO YOUR CORNER AND LET ME THINK!!!  _ I burst out annoyed.

**Alright, alright.  Geez… I was just giving you a hard time.**

_ And I’m about to give you a bad one.  _ Riley had survived and she didn’t appear wounded either thank god… I summoned Snap again and he saw I had perked up and did his little jumping dance on the floor around me.

“Yeah I feel like that too.” I said quietly to him but decided not to join in on the dance because I could just imagine Riley walking back out and seeing me dancing around the room like a doofus. She’d probably either walk out the door saying “Nope!” at the top of her lungs or get me into see a psychologist. Probably both. Seeing her survive helped me bring myself out of the pit I had hit the bottom of.  _ We're gonna kick his ass and he’s going to pay for everything he’s ever done to anyone I’ve ever cared about! _

**That’s the spirit.**

_ I’ll crush that sorry excuse of a soul he has into the dirt! He won’t escape me again! No more!   _ I was so done with this torment. I was done with the nightmares. I was done looking over my shoulder for a shadowy figure that was supposed to be dead but still haunted me. I could look at my sweater and not flinch thanks to its previous owner. 

**Well don’t get overconfident he did keep you hostage for 15 years when you were actually using your powers regularly. We need to think this through.**

_ What do you suggest, you ungrateful smartass? _

**Not ungrateful just using this thing called our brain.**

_ Have a plan? _

**Not yet. But give me time. I will.**

_ You better.  _ The bathroom door opened jolting me out of my thoughts a paw shoved a sopping pile of mostly hoodie. She was a tiny bit weirded out by this entire thing I think but really it was fine. I didn’t even touch her stuff. I just started powering a hand blast but kept it as just glowing light so it was nice and warm. I levitated it around to make sure that it wasn’t going to be super warm on one side and freezing on the other. I also grabbed a towel I had thought to wash with the sheets and reheated that a little before folding both into neat stacks and cracking open the door and pushing both on the other side of it so she would have them when she was ready.

**Can you imagine what she looks like without anything on?**

_ Now look who’s 12. _

**But imagine it….** I’m sorry but I did… I’m sorry okay?! and it wasn’t even like I pretended she didn’t have those scars she was so self conscious about and the image was easily the most gorgeous thing I’d ever hope to see. Aside from the real deal of course.

_ Well…  _

**See?**

_ I try not to think about it cause I get super zoned out and again not happening anytime soon. She’s had her physical body abused too much to trust us to show her it doesn’t have to be that way. _

**Can you believe we almost lost her today?**

_ Now who’s fault is that? _

**We almost did twice.**

_ When she gets back out here, remind me to love the shit out of her. _

**Reminder to myself that controls me: Love the shit out of the angel on the other side of that door when she gets out.**

_ That is definitely what I meant by that. _

**You’re welcome.** I sat there playing with Snap for a little bit.

“Hey Sans?” She called and I heard the water screech off.

“Yeah?” I answered blushing at the sound of her soft voice.

“Random question but did you bring a phone charger?” She asked her soothing voice turning the light cyan to I could be suffocating if it wasn’t normal for me.

“No? Should I have?”

“Just curoius I don’t need it yet but shower thoughts.” I was a little worried for her mental state.  She seemed... I don’t know. She just seemed off… She wouldn’t usually look for a charger until she needed one and even then it was usually completely out of power before she did.

“You doing alright?”

“Yeah I’m fine.” She opened the door the steam making it almost like a sci-fi movie (Or any movie with any kind of romance for that matter… I just thought spaceship doors that release the steam behind them and then the love interest walks through and… I’ll shut up now.) She had her hair up (That was a first and damn) and her sweater hung from off her arm (also a first. Still damn.) Her sarcasm t-shirt just showing the bottommost part of her stitches…. Woah I think my brain just died. “I think the better question is are you doing alright? You look like you choked on something… Sans?” I snapped out of it sorta. “You alright?”

“Yeah just admiring the view.” I said scanning her over again really quickly. It was her turn to blush.

“Me? A view?”

“Yeah you. Come here I wanna tell you how much I missed you and was scared for you back with Gaster.” I said and kissed her. She sorta rolled her eyes a little but reciprocated. See I honestly never would’ve thought she’d be into kissing a guy who was made of bone but if she was in and I was not saying no. We stayed like this for a long time. Eyes closed and just chilling a little bit. When she did pull away I felt my heart crack a little. “Thank you for not dying. I don’t know what I would’ve done without you here.” She didn’t say anything but looked away. I turned her face back. “Hey really I don’t. I really was scared for you and I feel like a dick for leaving you.” I can girlfriend. Definitely can girlfriend… As in, I’m a mess and would probably be doing better if I was drunk… She shrugged.

“I told you to go.  You simply did as you were told.  How does that make you a dick?” She pointed out, calmly moving away to grab her phone on the ancient dresser.

“Because I spent my entire life being selfless and protecting people from him but then I meet him again and I chose my own life over yours and that makes me a dick. Sorry about that. Won’t happen again.” I really did feel bad. I promise I did. I just don’t exactly know how to put in words without setting off some horrible memory of hers. I promised to help her as much as I could and I plan on sticking to that even if shit is going down right now. I suspect triggering some memory about her abusive ex isn’t going to be considered “helping”. 

She clicked on her phone and sent a text (probably to Rob if I were to take a wild guess) and said, “I also chose to tackle Gaster on my own accord so you could have at least a little time to let things sink in a little bit and prepare to fight him. I made it out mostly fine but it was also my choice to put you over myself.  You simply made sure that I didn’t do it for nothing.”

“I guess. But still…”

“We’ll get him in time. You can kick his ass and make sure he pays when we get there okay?”

“Yeah. Okay.”

“You really don’t believe me.”

“Nope. I’m an ass.”

“It’s fine.  It actually turned into something a little more comical.” She told me and I suspect my face displayed confusion and concern because she elaborated. “When I was getting the hell out of there a poor Grim Reaper looking guy stumbled upon this scene of me running away from a psychopath as a lion and I probably looked like a fucking moron or something and psychopath came after me and I ran like hell into ice cold water and this guy...” She couldn’t stop herself from laughing, “He just walks onto his shattered boat and it fixes itself and wanna know what he says? He says. “Same shit as always” and pushed off down the river.” She got control of herself. “It was awesome.”

“Are you sure Gaster didn’t fuck you up more than you’re telling me? Because it doesn’t sound like the riverman to just ignore a fight. Or a psychopath for that matter.”

“That definitely wasn’t a side effect of the chat we had.” She said nonchalantly…  _ He did what? _

“He talked to you?” she blinked unconcerned. 

“I kicked his ass, but yeah a little bit.” She looked me dead in the face. “Why?”

“Well see the thing about Gaster is he now knows exactly how to hurt you and he basically knows your entire life story… He also could be in your head without you even realizing it. He also could control your shifting powers and you would have no say in what you shifted into or what you did with your power… That’s a problem, yeah?” she froze.

“I see your point, but there’s no way he could know all that.  It was only like a 5 minute thing.”

“Yeah no he definitely knows everything.”  _ That’s… going to be a problem. _

“I kicked him out of my head! There’s no way he could know everything!”

“He knew it all before he started talking...”  **Hey umm hate to bust your bubble but I think you should maybe make it so that CAN’T HAPPEN. Instead of making it sound like she has terminal cancer. She’s not going to take this lightly you dummy!** “... But it’s fixable at least to a degree.”

“Start talking.”

“Well he knows how to fuck up your brain in a matter of seconds so.. we can’t go in and delete that knowledge but we can make it so he can’t destroy you from the outside or make you kill somebody by accident.”  **Doesn’t she have paranoia? Like a really bad way to get really good defense? Also if that failed I think it’d at least tell her,“Yo bad man! Bad bad man!”**

“Okay and how are we going to do that?”

“Can I see if he’s tried anything because you might not need it on second thought.”

“Okay?” I (somehow.) slipped past her defenses without really trying which even doing the memory exchange there had been a little bit of resistance which had destroyed itself. That was a little bit concerning. I looked for black traces on memories or thoughts were he would’ve been had he ever been there. Much to my surprise the only memories that had been touched were the ones directly involving him.  _ How in the…?  _

**Errr… Never seen that. But how does he know…?**

_ You ask me like I know. _

**Hold up.** We went back to where she fought other people out of her brain (Think of what I was doing was looking at a map of a city and could like “fast travel” to anywhere) and it looked like a cartoon character exploded there. A black gooey tar kept trying to break through her defenses and it wasn’t doing a very good job but it wanted me to die RIGHT NOW. It stopped suddenly 

**_Is he here?_ **

**Shit, shit, shit this is not going to be fun for her if we get into a fight here. Umm alright we’ve seen what we needed to let’s get out of here.** I couldn’t really respond. Gaster wanted me dead so badly he was trying to go through HER brain? He probably was aware of where we were and yet he still wasn’t going to face me head on, but instead go through my girlfriend? Wow. That was a low blow even for him. Even though I’m sure he knew he couldn’t get in through me. I blocked him out a long time ago.

I was dragged into reality again. Riley looked a little confused.

“So anything we need to be worried about?” She snapped me out of my thoughts.

“Well it’s something I’ll show you how to protect yourself from when he’s not actively trying to get into your head but for now I just need you to tell me if you start thinking things that aren’t normal.”

“What if it’s just like an anxiety attack thing?”

“You’ll know it’s not.  It’ll be things like ‘kill Sans in his sleep’ or ‘burn the building to the ground’. They’ll be noticeably different.”

“Okay…?”

“Trust me.  He had power of my thoughts for a long time. They are very different.” She looked a little concerned by this.

“He doesn’t have control now right?”

“No, no, I’ve trained with Asgore and he made sure I couldn’t be taken over unless I chose to let someone into my head.”

“What does the Asgore have to do with Gaster? Or mind control or anything?”

“Well Asgore and Gaster were best friends before Gaster went crazy so when Asgore became king he knew without question who his royal scientist would be.”

“So Asgore wasn’t ruling king when the monsters were forced underground?”

“No, he was born and raised underground with the rest of us. He was the 4th king to rule the underground after the war ended.”

“I see. Continue.”

“Well the king always has had a “personal bodyguard” a judge almost. Someone with incredible power that blends in with normal society until someone seeks audience with the king. The judge then goes and confronts the person and they are also trained by the king to have a special power to see inside the soul and the actions of the person in question. The judge then would decide if he or she was allowed to see the king. In times of war, this monster would determine who got to have counsel with the king and would serve as a last fall back bodyguard for him as well. The fully trained monster would battle the opponent to the death to protect the king and they were always fierce in battle making them exceptionally hard to get past. Of course not always do they succeed and the guardian’s life is taken.

“The crown was passed down four times since we got here. Time did not take it’s toll on any of them since monsters are not affected by it the same way humans are.

“Each judge is also trained to have a special power where they cannot be bribed or told to go some way other than the ruler’s wishes. Making them time bombs waiting to happen if the crown fell into the wrong hands. (Why the guardians existed in the first place.)

“Each generation, the old guardian is retired and a new one is chosen. Usually someone part of the royal arc but not always. The retired guardian along with the ruling king take this chosen one and train him or her in everything the previous guardian was taught before them.

My training marked the beginning of the 20th generation that lived down there. Of course my services were no longer needed once the barrier was opened but I repurposed those powers. Using the mental defense to keep Gaster out of my head. Simply put, I would be the most powerful of my kind seeing as how I had no successor. But even I failed at protecting Asgore when Chara came around. Which is something I wish I could’ve changed.” I explained.  I think we were both to talk of something other that Gastor and the fight that had just happened.

“But you didn’t fail him in the end. You brought Frisk around didn’t you? You’re the reason Frisk was able to let you free.” She pointed out.

“I guess, but I watched Asgore be slaughtered by Frisk because I was unable to set the past aside long enough to ally with her.”

“You had every reason to doubt her.”

“STILL.”

“Just saying… So if I did my math right, you marked the rise of the 20th generation of monsters that were raised under the ground?”

“Correct.”

“And you said there was only 4 reigning kings during that time.”

“Including the one who lost the war and got us trapped down here in the first place.”

“So each king reigned for 5 generations?”

“Roughly.”

“So how long was a generation?”

“On average about 30 years. If we were still underground I would have kids by now and they’d be being inspected by Asgore to see if they would be my heir.”

“That’s about 130 years of rule, plus 18ish before coming of age sooo, each king lived to be roughly 148 years old?”  She asked. “Also, are you glad you don’t have little tiny balls of energy known as children running around?”

“I said roughly our first king lived to be over a thousand (Most of it was passed above ground but beside the point. And I’m waiting till I know who I’m settling with in the first place and then we’ll see about children.”

“Thought about who that person might be at all yet?

“Are you asking what your chances of being my permanent mate are?” I juggled that idea for a minute. Not able to determine if even thinking this was a bad idea or if I really liked that picture in my head. But this entire relationship thing was still new so I didn’t need to decide right now.

“No.  Just wondering if monsters started considering settling down with their partners at the same age as we do.” She reasoned.  _ It’ll be a while for her in particular before it becomes a definite yes. _

“If things between us keep going well and we’re both excited to help one another out and spend time together even with the Gaster thing coming up I can see us having a future together if you do too.”

“Yeah it’ll be a while yet and it also would require both of us surviving.”

“Yeah it’ll take time but I’m just saying I can see it and I’m not opposed to it.” She didn’t respond immediately. “You don’t have to tell me you’re with it if that’s not something you’re okay with yet.” I told her quickly.

“I just feel like a ass for saying that.”

“You’re not. You’ve been through hell and back when it comes to the relationship thing  so if you don’t want to think that far ahead yet I don't think any less of you.” She nodded.

“Thanks. I appreciate your patience with this. I know it’ll get better with time.”

“I’m sure you’ll heal as long as I don’t take the same path Sam did.”

“I trust you won’t.” She said and there was a awkward silence that followed.

“You say partner instead of wife?” Changing subjects.  Don’t worry about it.

“What else would we say for someone of unspecified gender?” She said after a moment's pause trying to come up with a better name. 

“Candidates? Mates?” I offered meeting her eyes blankly.

“What happens if it’s a one night thing?” She blinked slowly like my gaze unnerved her a bit. I wasn’t sure how it would be, seeing as how she sure hadn’t taken her eyes off me.

“It’s just the person you had drunk sex with then. Nothing too fancy.” I pointed out flatly examining the shade of green her eyes glittered in the dim light.

“Sure.” She glanced away shyly.

“They all sorta mean the same thing.” I said not taking my eyes off her, observing her features and the way her muscles twitched as she sat down on the bed clicking on her phone. I moved from where I had been leaning on and took her phone out of her hands.

“Hey!” She complained and reached for it but I held it behind me. Her eyes narrowed “What do you want?” she grumbled annoyed.

“Do you want the smartass answer or the legit answer.”

“What one is getting my phone back?”

“I only want to show you how grateful that I get to spend this time with you. Even if it has all gone to shit.” 

“So you want me to kiss you?” She translated.

“Sure.” I said shrugging.

“Sure?” She looked worried at my flat tone.

“If you want to---” I was gonna say if you want to than it’s fine. But I guess not.

“Oh shut it aned just come here.” She interrupted me pulling me towards her and pressing her lips against mine.  **Lucky.**

_ I think you are just jealous that I knocked it out of the park.  _ I retorted silently.

**I don’t see you losing clothes. You didn’t flirt that well.**

_ What if this was all I wanted? _

**Then congrats.**

_ You’re still jealous! _

**I never said I wasn’t.**

  1. See while this little exchange happened me and Riley sure weren’t about to pull away. Which I was completely okay with.



**Keeping this one?**

_ She’s different than Toriel was. _

**I know. That’s why I’m asking.**

_She has your stamp of approval?_ _  
_ **Hey I like her as much as the next guy.**

_ So you hate her? _

**Next guy as in you.**

_ Oh okay well I’m glad we could both like the same girl cuz that makes life a lot easier. _

**Keep her.**

_ Done. _


End file.
